September 2021 Error Coin Highlights

This month we feature a rare error that a sharp-eyed person located and submitted to PCGS. Last month we featured some brockage errors, this month we will show two off-center double-struck pieces.

The first impressive error coin for the month is on a United States Philippines 1944-D 10 Centavos. The error may not be noticeable at first but is dramatic and rare. The anomaly is called a “dropped letter error.” A dropped letter error occurs when some kind of obstruction or debris filled the incuse part of a die – in this case a letter – and, while in production, the obstruction falls out of the incuse cavity and gets struck into a coin, creating an incuse image on to the coin it was struck into. For this coin, the Denver mint mark, or “D,” was the letter that was filled and released creating a secondary “D” mint mark now turned below the ribbon between the normal mint mark and date, bellow “COMM” on the ribbon above. As is the case with many errors, dropped letters tend to be unique and very uncommon, and because of the nature of the error can easily be overlooked.

This coin, which features a very nice double-struck error, is a France L’AN 7 (1798)-A 5 Centime. While dramatic errors such as this are not uncommon on French coins of the time, it was highlighted to show an example of off-center double-struck coin. An off-center double strike occurs when the coin is first struck properly and is partially ejected before it is struck a second time. Again, with most errors being unique, presentation of anomalies like this can range dramatically. An interesting point of note on this example is the secondary strike mostly obliterated the first strike, with only faint parts of the lettering bleeding through.

This double-struck error coin is a China Hupeh (1906) 10 Cash listed as Y-10j.5. This example was chosen to compliment the French double-struck coin above. This example is about 50% off-center on the secondary strike, but while being struck, the second strike actually bent or cupped the coin. The Chinese character side of the coin features a ridge splitting but is not separating the metal. This gives the coin a cool effect showing where the die striking the coin for the second time bends the coin and pushes the metal at the same time. Where the edge of the die meets the already struck coin a distorted effect can be seen. Chinese copper errors are also not uncommon and are often relatively inexpensive, despite how dramatic they can be.