Error on reverse proof could be valuable

Ready. Set. Go!

A new error has been reported.

Everyone who has ordered a 2018 San Francisco Silver Reverse Proof Set has a chance to get one.

Yesterday, reader Mark Warda sent this email to me:

“I just received from the Mint a reverse proof set that seems to be an error.

“The half dollar is a normal reverse proof on the back, but the front looks like a circulation half, like it missed going through the frosting and mirroring process.

“I’ll send you a photo attached to a second email, in case it would cause this email to be blocked.

“Is this considered an error or just a defect?”

Warda asks the right question.

It looks definitely like it is a collectible error.

Instead of frosted fields, all of the obverse of the 2018-S half dollar seems to be mirrored.

It looks like a standard proof coin from 50 years ago before the Mint mastered the art of giving all coins a cameo look.

It certainly doesn’t look like a reverse proof.

Let’s hope more of these are found and reported.

What a great way to enliven the month of August.

For an error to have value and to endure, like a 1955 doubled-die cent, it needs to be easily identified.

Lack of frosted fields on the obverse is easy to spot.

The error needs to have occurred on more than one or a handful of coins.

The paradox of error values is too few errors might make them scarce, but the general collecting public simply turns its back on them.

So, look at the sets you have already received.

Or, consider sending in a new order before the Mint runs out of the reverse proof sets.

Currently, the Mint has reported sales of 164,119 of this reverse proof set.

This is up by 18,730 in the latest week.

Maximum mintage is 200,000.

The Mint has 35,881 remaining.

The existence of this error might just spur some fence sitters to buy.

Happy hunting.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017 . He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."