Misstruck pennies

[kestrel]

I have seen off-set (or mint error) pennies for sale on Ebay but never seen one in circulation. In other words, the image is not centered and sometimes the coin is misshapen.
Are these real of fakes? I can't see how they could escape all the detection screens and devises at the Mint.
Any opinion?

 

[AGCoinHunter]

I think you are refering to what is called a broadstrike. Happens when the collar die is missing when the coin is struck. They are real. I found one many years ago. Usually the more offstuck they are the more valuable they are. If they have an intact date they also tend to bring more.

 

[Historyhound]

The mints ship coins in large bags that are filled right off the presses. They are then sent to rolling services, ie Brink's, to be rolled and shipped. At one time you could get small bags directly from the mints that could possibly contain any number of strike errors. I have searched a number of mint-sewn $50 bags of pennies over the years and have found numerous off-center cents, as well as multiple struck coins, capped dies, clips and others. You can find mint-sewn bags on EBay. You can still get small bags of quarters from the mints but the days of $50 penny bags are long gone.