Community Voice Responses (July 11, 2017)

From the June 16 Numismatic News E-Newsletter:

Will you check your 1990 proof sets for the “No S” cent?

Here are some answers sent from our e-newsletter readers to Editor Dave Harper.

Sure, why not? You never know when you might get lucky.

Gary Canupp
Charlotte, N.C.

I think with over 60 years as a full-time collector, I would know if I had a 1990 “No S” proof set, but the question is still hanging out there: How did such a thing come about? Was it a blockage? Was it a polish problem, where the mintmark was removed? Just what? With a current price tag of over $4,000, it seems someone would know how it happened.

Johnny Trigg
Address withheld

Editor’s note: The mintmark was not on the die. A Mint worker took a die intended to be processed as a business strike working die and processed it as a proof die, shipping it to the San Francisco Mint with other properly processed dies where it was overlooked until caught several hundred coins into its run.

Yes, I have checked and am not a winner there. Maybe you could encourage your readers to also check their 2009 silver proof quarter sets for the Northern Mariana Islands quarter with the severe die polishing error (as published in the Feb. 14, 2011, issue of Coin World, article written by Mike Diamond).

I first put info about this coin on the Internet in 2010 and have still not ever heard of anyone finding another example of this significant error. Like the “No S” coins, the 2009 silver proof error is not easy to see at a glance. I did not discover mine until I was reviewing the scans I did when I received my sets. Errors like these are easy to miss when viewing the coins in their mint lenses with the unaided eye, and I am grateful for the encouragement of experts like yourself to have even casual collectors look for specific coins that may be of significance to the entire collecting community.

www.error-ref.com/2011-02-14

Clair Alan Hardesty
Chico, Calif.

I recently read Ken Potter’s article on the “No S” 1990 cent proof set. I know there are some state quarter errors that have been reported. I have received a 1999 uncirculated set from the U.S. Mint, of which the Denver set has two Connecticut quarters and no Pennsylvania quarter. Even though this is obviously an error, I don’t know if it has any value. Is there an increased value that you know of, and have other people reported this same type of error?

This does not seem to be a coin error, just a packaging error. I could send a photo if interested in seeing it.

Jim Nunn
Address withheld

Editor’s note: You are quite right that what you have is called a packaging error. They are easy to fake, so there is virtually no extra value attached to them in the marketplace.

I also wonder if anyone is looking for the 2017 “No P” cent.

Name withheld

As you may note from my e-mail address, I have been very involved with this set since the discovery back in 1990. I was stationed with the USAF in Spain when the first sets were discovered and read with great interest your company’s article by the late Alan Herbert. That was the 7th of August, 1990, edition.

I called the late Harry Forman from Spain, who had purchased the discovery sets, with my strong interest in buying one of the discovery sets. I purchased one, which I still own. I’ve gone on to purchase five more sets over the years.

While working for the largest numismatic auction house in the world, I probably handled more of the sets, and individual coins, than anyone out there. In the same context, after 23+ years at this company (no longer there), I never found a single set!

If you have a copy of Sol Taylor’s Standard Guide to the Lincoln Cent, he copied a letter into his book I had written to people who responded to my requests for information concerning the set. Not as rare as the Proof 1968 No S Dime, but rarer than the '83, '70 and '71 No s editions. (I’m not including the two known 1975 pieces, as I believe these are highly suspect and made with intent.)

If the owner of the newly discovered set wishes to speak with me, I’m more than happy to share my thoughts on this set privately with him or her.

Christopher Lane
Address withheld

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