1944-S Jefferson Wrong-Planchet Error

Beautiful coin !
Goes to show you that even back then, people were trying to stretch pennies into nickels.

Fmtaxguy,
I think the fact that this is a War Nickel with the large mintmark over Monticello makes it more desirable. The dealer reported he paid over $2000 for the coin, so he obviously thinks it's worth a lot. Heritage has sold several newer-date nickels struck on cent planchets with sale prices in the $200-300 range, but none from the war years. I think it would be very difficult to find an equivalent piece.

Wow, sweet coin, Jaobler... bet you wish that one was going in your personal collection :D!

Chuckster,
These coins are made when a blank planchet intended for a different denomination finds its way into the coin press. The planchet necessarily must be the same size or smaller than the proper one for the coin setup, or else it will not fit within the coining chamber. Therefore, you won't see (for example) any nickels struck on quarter planchets, but you could see quarters struck on nickel planchets.

This coin started out as a cent-sized blank planchet and it probably did "spread" a little when struck, since the nickel-size coining chamber is a bit larger than a cent. However, the planchet metal did not reach the edges of the chamber and the resulting coin is smaller than a normal nickel. You can see how portions of the legends are incomplete since the entire design could not fit onto the smaller planchet.

Gettingbrowned,
I wouldn't mind having this coin but I do think the 10X premium over a "normal" error nickel is too steep. The wrong-planchet error I would really like is a cent struck on a silver dime planchet. These are known and do appear for sale occasionally. I like the idea of a silver Lincoln Wheat cent, expecially one dated 1943! Check out this coin, which sold on Heritage for $3105 back in 2002.

Chuckster, the error you mentioned above could exist but I don't know of any. It would be a wrong stock error if copper strip was fed thru the nickel blanking process. Then you would have copper nickels that were the correct diameter of a nickel. The most common example of this that I know of is the 1970D quarters struck on dime stock. They look like the regular quarter but are thin and light weight. I have also found a 1969 dime that I think is struck on quarter stock. It is the thickness of a quarter and is over weight. There is a page in the Official CONECA Handbook that list the weights for the various errors of this type.