By Ken Potter for Numismaster

A wrong-planchet half dollar dated 1980-P with a four-digit value has been found. A Pennsylvania hobbyist reported it May 30.

“I found this 1980-P Kennedy half in a roll yesterday and I think it might be a wrong planchet error but I’m not sure. There is only a slight trace of reeding on the edge and the condition is probably about uncirculated (AU). It’s also smaller in diameter and a little thinner than a normal Kennedy half. I don’t have the proper equipment to weigh it. Any help in identifying it would be greatly appreciated,” RHM wrote.

Without an actual examination of the coin and without knowing its weight, it is impossible to conclusively attribute the planchet to a United States or other country’s coin (the U.S. Mint struck coins for other countries in 1980).

What we do know from the metal flow that shows on the characters closest to the rim is that it was struck on an undersized planchet. However, the finder was able to add a bit of information that helped immensely; he later confirmed my suspicion that he could see a copper core. This suggests that it is a clad planchet of the type used for dimes through dollars during that year.

In my opinion, the coin is too spread-out and fills too much of the collar for it to have been struck on a quarter planchet. This suggests that it was most probably struck on a Susan B. Anthony dollar planchet. If so, an estimation of its value from a panel of error coin experts is somewhere between $850 and $1,750 for an AU grade.

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By Ken Potter, Numismatic News

An Ohio trio, Richard Stachurski and his grandsons Zak and Joe El khamiri, has found what may be the first Missing Clad Layer error reported on a 2008-P John Quincy Adams Presidential dollar.

According to Stachurski, he and his grandsons routinely search Presidential dollars for errors with each of the boys assigned different tasks based on age. Four-year-old Joe is assigned the task of clearing away the wrappers from which the coins are quickly removed by 8-year-old Zak who passes them on to Stachurski, who does the actual searching.

Stachurski, said that the find was interesting in that the error was located in the third roll searched from a box containing 28 rolls obtained from a Charter One bank in Ohio. He said that the teller told him that somebody had already gone through the first 12 rolls in the box (which originally contained 40 rolls or 1,000 dollar coins) and advised him that there were no errors to be found.

Apparently the original searcher was looking for repetitive types such as plain edge or double edge lettered errors where several to many were generally found in boxes that contained them for the Washington and Adams dollars. The original searcher apparently gave up after searching a dozen rolls feeling there was nothing to be found

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When reviewing upcoming auctions, one of the things we like to look for are the more unusual items, the coins that surprise you and say “I didn’t know that!”

In the upcoming Heritage Signature Sale of The Ellsworth Collection (May 29th) we found the following 1795 Double Error Half Cent.

Below is the auction catalog Description:

This is a stunning and spectacular double error, either of which would be extremely important in its own right. The substantial curved clip is positioned at 4 o’clock. This clip is larger than any we recall seeing on a half cent of any date, let alone this 18th century date. Similarly, the off-center strike, positioned to 9 o’clock, is further off-center than we recall on any other examples. The combination is nothing short of amazing.

Any combination of two or more error types on a single coin essentially makes that coin unique. It is completely unreasonable to think that another identical error combination could have been produced, unless someone at the Mint was making these intentionally, and during the 1790s, that was probably not the case.

The surfaces are lightly corroded. The obverse has charcoal-brown and deep green color, with mostly deep green on the reverse. A few old obverse scratches are so nicely blended with the rest of the coin that they are not immediately obvious. EAC 12.