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.

As part of an effort in 1999 to promote the new Sacagawea Dollars, General Mills scattered 5,500 specially-packaged 2000-dated Sacagawea Dollars among 10 million boxes of Cheerios cereal. Five years later, it was discovered that the so-called “Cheerios” Dollars were actually from a different reverse die type.

Some experts consider these pattern coins; others have called them “Reverse of 1999”. PCGS has labeled them “Cheerios FS-401”, referring to the source and the reference number from the Fivaz-Stanton “Cherrypicker” guide.

Because of the perceived rarity of the Reverse of 1999 and the assumption that all “Cheerios” Dollars bore the Reverse of 1999, the demand for these coins has increased and the coins themselves have become quite valuable.

However, PCGS experts recently opened a sealed “Cheerios” package only to find out that the Dollar contained in the package was of a normal, Reverse of 2000 die type.

The package appeared to be authentic and showed no evidence of tampering. A similar experience has been reported by another grading service. Thus, one may no longer assume that the Dollars in the Cheerios packages are of the rare, Reverse of 1999.

Because the “Cheerios” Dollars are packaged obverse up, the reverse cannot be seen. An obverse die marker has been identified on some “Cheerios” Dollars and may assist in identifying Reverse of 1999 Dollars in sealed packages. The die marker consists of die polish extending into the field from Sacagawea’s wrap immediately below and to the left of the mintmark. Whether this die marker is diagnostic of the Reverse of 1999 Sacagawea Dollars remains to be seen. (more…)