Tag Archives: Illustrated coin glossary

One of the most comprehensive numismatic glossary, illustrated so that viewers can see as well as read about coin terms.

How Coins Are Made

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If you are searching for errors and varieties, you need to know the process used at the U.S. Mint. Otherwise, you will think damaged coins are valuable errors.

Before we describe the minting process, we need to make an analogy. Most people know how newspapers are printed. So let’s start there.

Printing Process

Newsroom editors design the layout for each page, including photos and illustrations. Using a laser, a press employee creates an aluminum plate, attached to a drum. Plates are coated with ink, and the drum spins, transferring ink to rubber blanket. Paper is fed through those blankets to print each page.

If the ink blurs a page, or if there is insufficient ink, the press run has to be stopped because that error will appear in every newspaper.

This newspaper was damaged by rain and fire. It did not leave the press room like this.

Likewise, this coin was damaged by fire. It didn’t leave the U.S. Mint like that.

A damaged coin is not a mint error or variety.

The Minting Process

A coin’s design is created by artists. The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and the Commission of Fine Arts review designs and select one for manufacturing.

The chosen design is transferred to a master die made from hardened steel to preserve the coin for future reference. That master die creates working dies used to strike the coins. 

The Mint purchases metal coils for each denomination. Those are straightened so that the blanking press can make planchets.

Blanks are heated to soften and prepare them for striking. That process includes a striking hammer that pounds the blank between obverse and reverse of a working die.

Blanks are squeezed by a machine called an upsetting mill to form a rim. 

A quality control operator inspects the first run of a particular coin to ensure that no mistakes are made.

Mintmarks used to be hand-punched directly into the working die. Engravers manually struck a steel punch bearing the mintmark onto the die.

This resulted in varied positions and sometimes faint or shadowed impressions, known as repunched mint marks (RPMs), because a technician might not have struck the punch perfectly straight or the impression was too weak, requiring a second attempt.

Here is a nifty list so that you know how to describe the RPMs:

After 1989, the mintmark was added to the master hub, leading to consistent, identical mintmarks on all working dies from that point forward.

What This Means

Think again about a newspaper page with an error like blurred or smeared ink. Maybe one photograph with the wrong caption or misspelled name. Those errors will appear on each page unless the press operator stops the run and fixes the flaw.

This is the same process when minting coins. In other words, a particular flaw will exist on all coins made by the damaged working die.

So if you think your coin has a “unique” flaw, it is likely not an error or variety. The U.S. Mint does not make coins one planchet at a time. In fact, each die may make up to a million coins before being exchanged for a new working die.

Changing working dies means extra work. Sometimes Mint employees will polish a die so that it can continue striking. This may result in die deterioration responsible for filled mint marks, struck through grease, and “L” in “Liberty, for instance, close to the rim of a cent.

Sometimes quality control falters. For instance, some 40,000 double die 1955 cents were mistakenly released to the public. There was a reason, too. In 1955, the Philadelphia Mint was working overtime to meet the demand for new cents, primarily because of a one-cent tax on cigarettes. In the round-the-clock mayhem, the hub doubling was missed and those errors were mixed with other non-error cents.

If you understand the minting process, you won’t be led astray by clickbait social media coin videos and hyped values of error coins and varieties.

Proxiblog, operated by Michael Bugeja, a former writer for Coin World and past member of the U.S. Mint’s Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, has seen production at the Philadelphia Mint and branch mints. He has assembled two valuable directories: one is an illustrated coin glossary that contains terms used in the minting process, and one that lists all the errors and varieties of popular denominations recognized by the U.S. Mint as well as top holdering companies.

If you like posts like this, please subscribe so you can be informed whenever there is a new article or column.

Proxiblog also has thousands of followers on Facebook Coin Groups, YouTube and social media. To get the latest discussion and commentaries, click here.

You can find more information about errors and varieties as well as buying and bidding on coins in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider purchasing the work for yourself or a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist website. Thank you.

1960/1960-D Small Date Cents

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If you are interested in finding the 1960/1960-D Small and Large date, you should look at the photos in this post and also consult PCGS’s Jaime Hernandez historical description about these varieties on the PCGS website.

First, let’s look at diagnostics so that you can tell the difference between small and large date, beginning with the 1960 varieties.

Hernandez writes that the 1960 the Mint created excitement when it produced these coins. “Even people who didn’t collect coins heard about the two varieties and began looking for the scarcer small date variety. Pretty soon, the small date variety coins were commanding strong premiums over the large date varieties.”

Hernandez notes that the news media promoted collecting these varieties with some hobbyists selling $50 bags of the small date for $10,000, or about $2 for each cent.

They are worth more than that now. Here are the latest values from CoinFacts:

Here are values for 1960 Small Date, Brown:

Here are values for the 1960-D Small Date, Brown:

Do not believe the hype about these coins on social media. Here’s one about a million dollar coins:

Now for the diagnostics:

The 1960 Small Date variety will have a smaller 0 digit and be oval in shape in the inside of the 0. The top of the 9 digit is lower and almost flush with the 1 digit as opposed to being larger and higher like on the large date variety.

Hernandez also writes this about condition and chances of roll hunting or finding the coin in pocket change:

MS60 – MS63: Not scarce. Can still be found in pocket change and rolls.

MS64: Somewhat scarce. Difficult to locate but can be found in rolls or purchased.

MS65: Somewhat scarce. Hard to find in rolls but can be purchased online.

MS66: rare. Extremely difficult to find in rolls as these have been largely looked through already.

MS67: Extremely rare. Fewer than a few dozen in this condition.

Here are the diagnostics for the 1960-D varieties:

As Hernandez also notes, these varieties also can be found in proof sets. He writes, “The 1960 Large over Small Date Proof Lincoln Cent is a fairly popular variety. It’s fairly easy to see the overlapping of the Large and Small Date on all four digits of the date. Although there are hundreds of examples or more that have been found, the variety still commands a significant premium. Therefore, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for it.”

Here are proof cent varieties at auction, with the San Francisco mint mark, “S,” again from PCGS Coinfacts:

In sum, it is perfectly fine to search for the Small Date varieties, but be realistic and now the various colors of the Lincoln cent: Brown, Red-Brown, Red. You can find these in my illustrated coin glossary.

If you like posts like this, subscribe so you can be informed whenever there is a new article or column.

Proxiblog also has hundreds of followers on Facebook Coin Groups. To get the latest discussion and commentary, be sure to friend us by clicking here.

You can find more information about types, varieties, errors, grading, bidding and buying in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider buying or gifting the work for a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist blog. Thank you.

The Search for W-Mint Mark Quarter Errors

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To foster coin collecting, the U.S. Mint released 10 million W-mint mark quarters in 2019 and 2020, the first time the West Point facility had been used to make circulating coinage. The low-mintage represented a mere 1% of all quarters produced in those years, raising interest in the hobby along with values, especially since the Mint mixed Denver and Philadelphia issues in bulk bags sent to banks.

Ergo, you can still find these desired coins in pocket change, although after so many years the they typically will have been circulated, in lower grades due to wear. Typically they sell for below $50. But if you can find any of these W-mint mark America the Beautiful quarters with mint errors, values increase dramatically.

Errors are scarce in this series because the Mint wanted to ensure that these special issues were as pristine as possible. The lack of major errors, such as mules or double dies, has spiked values for otherwise common or slight design deviations.

This article discusses how to identify discovered–and yet to be discovered–errors in the series.

These are the five 2019-W quarter designs:

  • Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts
  • American Memorial Park in the Northern Mariana Islands
  • War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam
  • San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in Texas
  • Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho

These are the five 2020-W quarter designed, which also contain a privy mark celebrating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

  • National Park of American Samoa in the U.S. territory of American Samoa
  • Weir Farm National Historic Site located in the state of Connecticut
  • Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve in the U.S. Virgin Islands territory,
  • Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Vermont
  • Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas

Struck through coins are the most frequent error in W-mint mark quarters. This occurs when a clogged die strikes the planchet with a mixture of lubricant and metal dust.

Here is an example from eBay:

The 2020 American Samoa Quarter features a fruit bat, with the mother bat hanging upside down holding her offspring. Here’s the official design:

A dramatic error exists with the Samoa quarter. A strike-through occurred on multiple coins, obscuring part or all of the mother bat’s face.

Here’s a PCGS example:

This raw version was offered on eBay:

There are other less dramatic examples of the struck-through error, such as the obverse of the coin below, which would have been a low-value mistake had it not occurred on a W-mint mark quarter:

To help you discover the various possible mint errors, see this illustrated coin glossary, from which these examples have been taken. Again, keep in mind, that many of these errors have not been discovered but are theoretically possible. Click the glossary link above to see visual depictions:

BROAD STRUCK: A minting error resulting in a coin outside its collar.
CLIPPED: A planchet missing part of its design when the blank in question was improperly punched
CUD: A flaw that raises metal near the collar or edge, caused by a damaged die at the mint.
DIE CHIP: A small piece of metal not part of the original design comes into contact with the metal dies.
DIE CRACK: A defective line caused by a faulty die.
DOUBLING: Also known as hub doubling and double die, a coin that underwent a bounce on the die, leaving two images on the surface, as opposed to machine doubling caused by a loose die with little numismatic value. (See HUB DOUBLING, MACHINE DOUBLING.)
LAMINATION ERROR: A portion of a coin’s planchet due to impurities of the planchet.
MISALIGNED COLLAR: A strike in which the die does not square up perfectly with obverse or reverse, resulting in a partial collar or mint error, usually not very valuable. (See COLLAR.)
MULE: A coin whose obverse and reverse are meant for different coins. The quarter below has a dollar reverse.
MISSING MINT MARK: Because there was only one mint in Philadelphia in the early 19th Century, no mint mark was used. However, the “P” mint mark appears on coins from 1942-1945. Beginning in1980 all of Philadelphia’s coins (except cent) have the “P” mint mark. The W-mint mark was used on America the Beautiful quarters in 2019 and 2020.
REPUNCHED: A variety of a coin whose date or mintmark seems double struck.
STRUCK THROUGH GREASE: A clogged die that strikes with a mixture of lubricant and metal dust.

Here is an eBay example of a clipped W-mint mark quarter:

You’ll notice that the above clip appears on the American Samoa quarter–the same with the struck-through faceless or blind mother bat. Imagine the desirability of this coin containing both errors! Theoretically, it could exist. So can other W-mint mark quarters with multiple errors.

That said, be especially wary about bidding or buying raw error coins in the W-mint mark series. For instance, unscrupulous sellers can use a clipping tool to create their self-made error. Also, often sellers just say “error!” and expect you to believe it.

There is no hub doubling on this coin:

Likewise, this is loose-die machine doubling–note the flatness of the letters–not a DD error at all.

Here is a common struck-through error caused by metal dust that happened to blur the “S” in “Trust,” and yet the seller asks for a fantastic amount for this low-grade quarter:

Finally, if you just wish to have a collection of these W-mint mark 2019 and 2020 quarters, you can purchase uncirculated ones for about $100. Here’s an eBay example:

If you like posts like this, subscribe so you can be informed whenever there is a new article or column.

Proxiblog also has thousands of followers on Facebook Coin Groups, YouTube and social media. To get the latest discussion and commentary, be sure to friend us by clicking here.

You can find more information about types, varieties, errors, grading, bidding and buying in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider buying or gifting the work for a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist blog. Thank you.