Minting millions of coins inevitably leads to a few mistakes. While the mint tries to destroy these errors some escape into circulation and become highly desirable collectibles.
Types of Mint Errors
Off-center strikes occur when the blank metal disc is not properly centred between the dies, leaving a portion of the design missing with a crescent of blank metal. Double strikes happen when a coin fails to eject properly and is struck a second time, resulting in overlapping doubled images. Brockage occurs when a previously struck coin sticks to the die and strikes the next blank, leaving a sunken mirror-image impression. Clipped planchets occur when the blanks are punched too close to the edge of the metal strip, resulting in a coin with a curved bite taken out of it.
Authentication is crucial as scammers often create artificial damage to mimic mint errors.