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Everyday on Facebook coin groups, Reddit and eBay, dryer and spooned coins appear with their owners believing they have found valuable errors. Let’s look closely at both examples of post mint damage in this article so you can identify what you have if you found examples in pocket change (literally) and rolls.

Also, this article showcases examples of sellers claiming dryer and spooned coins are valuable errors. They are not. They have no collector value.

Dryer Coin

A coin left in a home dryer or, more probably, a commercial dryer at a laundromat is known in numismatics as a “dryer coin,” dramatically changing dimensions so that it appears vastly different than the denomination.

The coin typically remains in a person’s pocket after being washed and tumbled and then falls out of the clothing and is exposed to high heat in a dryer. Sometimes it falls into the gap between the rotating inner drum and the stationary outer frame of a commercial dryer where it suffers even more damage due to grinding, friction and heat.

If you put the phrase “dryer coin” into a search engine, you get dozens of examples on Facebook and Reddit.

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Dryer coins undergo these transformations: a flattening and widening of the edge, losing any reeding in the process. The heat pushes from the center outward resulting in a state that often resembles a bicycle tire with enhanced rim. The diameter becomes smaller.

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Also, the result is a “mushy” discolored surface with devices literally melting away, as in the above coin. That is not a grease strike. It is a cent that was exposed to high heat in a commercial dryer. Compare:

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It is important to distinguish between dryer coins and spooned ones. While both are considered damage, there are distinct differences.

Spooned

A spooned coin often looks like a dryer coin. In this case, however, the edge of a coin is intentionally hammered or pressed with the back of a spoon, eventually flattening and widening it.

The process is used to make a coin ring, as in this example:

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The process of tooling the coin varies from a kitchen spoon to a handy person’s tool box and machinery. Basically, the coin is secured on a hard surface so that the person can use the back of a metal spoon, tapping, rotating and rubbing the coin over a long period (we’re talking days or even weeks).

Eventually the coin starts to mushroom toward the edge, developing an extended ring-like edge as in the above coin. At that point what remains of the coin is punched or drilled out, leaving the ring, which eventually is polished.

Some finished rings are lovely, as in this example:

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Of course the finished ring looks nothing like a dryer coin. The confusion happens when the person abandons the spooning process and leaves the coin with a large ring-like edge but with the remaining devices of the coin still visible without the mushy appearance of a dryer coin.

That’s how you tell the difference between a spooned and dryer coin. Compare:

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As you might expect, unknowledgeable people sell dryer and half-spooned coins as valuable error. Here’s an example of a dryer coin offered for $150.

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Here’s an example of a spooned quarter misidentified as an error for $500.

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Proxiblog has the largest illustrated glossary on the web. Click here. You can compare dryer and spooned coins to sunken dies and heat damage. Study all the examples so that you, too, can become a coin expert.

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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.