Error Coin Question

dejapooh

Bronze Member
Nov 14, 2012
1,485
1,083
Thousand Oaks, CA
Primary Interest:
Other
With the 2 older ones, it was not unheard of for mint employees to play around and make mules. Some on the 1804 dollars were made by mint employees to make some money on the side. The 1894 S dime is another example of employee made rarities (8 mint executives and friends made 24 of them and took 3 each. The director of the mint gave his three to his daughter telling her to save them as they would be worth a lot of money someday. She spent one on a dish of ice cream. She sold the other 2 in the 1950's)
 

huntsman53

Gold Member
Jun 11, 2013
6,955
6,769
East Tennessee
Primary Interest:
Other
Not all Mules were intentionally produced by Mint Employees! Some of these were done by accident when one production of a denomination ceased, the production of another denomination began and a Die from the previous production of a denomination was inadvertently left attached to the Die Press. This error/mistake always occurrs (Mule coins produced that might accidentally leave the Mints) when going from a smaller diameter coin to a larger diameter coin because if the mistake occurred oppositely, the larger Dies would not fit into the Collar and thus either the wrong denomination Die or the Collar would be damaged and production would immediately cease. How many Mules are produced is dependent upon when a Mint Employee notices the error/mistake in production. How many Mules actually get out of the Mints, is dependent upon how long it takes Quality Control to notice the error/mistake and whether or not some of the Mules made it into bags of coins to be shipped before the error/mistake was found.


Frank
 

Last edited:

coinguy*matthew

Sr. Member
Mar 30, 2013
421
148
N.H.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Well put Frank....:icon_thumright:


Let me also add that mint errors are not all that uncommon, what makes errors so valuable is that very few actually make it past quality control. You would be surprised at how many coins get waffled, melted then recoined, your best bet for finding errors is to buy mint sealed bags as the possibilities for an overlooked error is far greater. When the mint assembles mint sets the coins they select are much less likely have a major error as a mule would be immediately spotted.
 

50cent

Silver Member
Nov 16, 2012
2,870
1,109
Super-Skunksville x1000.
Primary Interest:
Other
Mint workers intentionally pull this BS from time to time, (at least they used to), and after some time passes, that is to say sooner or later; a few coins got out. Then guess what happens to the mint workers, there goes your job. At least this is what a friend tells me how these came about but I really don't believe this theory.
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top