About a year and a half ago, Joe W. Crowder of Tennessee, reported upon a 1968-S Proof half dollar exhibiting the first known example of a proof coin with an inverted Mint mark. I reported upon the variety in Numismatic News and again, several months later, in my Coin World column. However, in spite of the publicity, not a single specimen beyond the five pieces Crowder originally found has been reported.
According to Crowder he ordered 20 - 1968 proof sets directly from the Mint. He then put them away until later that year when the young lady next door graduated from high school and he pulled a set from a box of five and gave it to her as a graduation gift. It was at that point that he decided to take a closer look at the coins and noticed the Mint marks on the Kennedy half dollars in the remaining four sets in that box were inverted or up-side-down. He went back to look at the set he had given away and learned that it too contained a Kennedy half with an inverted Mint mark.
Crowder waited 30 years and finally decided to report the variety to the collecting public. A specimen was sent to me and upon its arrival there was no doubt his assertions were correct. The Mint mark on this variety is unquestionably and obviously inverted. Crowder's coin is now one of a handful of Inverted Mint Mark varieties that I have listed in the Variety Coin Register(r). His find is now listed as VCR#4/IMM#1.
Last week I received an email from Crowder asking if the variety is rare and what it may be worth. Frankly, while it has been a year since my first published reports and it would seen like the absence of any additional finds suggests rarity -- such is not always the case. It is not unusual for varieties publicized in places like Numismatic News, Coin World (or other numismatic periodicals) to be forgotten almost as quickly as they are reported upon if no activity in terms of further finds and/or a retail market develops.
A true test of just how many may exist and what kind of value may be established for a variety only occurs once a variety is listed in a reference like the "Cherrypickers' Guide to Rare Die Varieties" by Bill Fivaz and J.T. Stanton or enough are initially found to get on dealer's sell-lists or placed in high-profile auctions. Once a coin is listed in a book, folks tend to place more importance on it and are reminded of it every time they open the book to that section. In a like manner, once it gets established as a retail item -- folks tend to better remember the variety and search for it more often.
Hopefully readers of this column will do a little searching an find what has eluded the readers if other publications so far.
Readers seeking out this "new" variety will have little trouble distinguishing it. The "S" has an obviously awkward up-side-down look. If in doubt, compare it to another coin of the same date. An image of the variety may be requested by emailing me at: Kpotter256@aol.com and requesting "Scan#1968SINVS". Good luck!
Ken Potter is the official attributor and lister of world doubled dies for the Combined Organizations of Numismatic Error Collectors of America and for the National Collector's Association of Die Doubling. He privately lists U.S. doubled dies and other collectable variety types on both U.S. and world coins in the Variety Coin Register. For more information on either of these clubs, or to learn how to get a variety listed in the Variety Coin Register, send a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope and $0.52 U.S. postage (or $0.75 Canadian) to Ken Potter, P.O. Box 760232, Lathrup Village, MI 48076-0232. Contact Ken via e-mail to: Kpotter256@aol.com, or visit his Educational Image Gallery located at: http://www.uscents.com/potter/.
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