2010 Mule Dime In Specemin Sets?

HI T_Y! I like your common sense approach!

i did purchase the quarter you mentioned a couple years ago and I do agree that it is not a mule. lined obverse and brilliant reverse. this occured, in my understanding because the planchet and the sheet it was cut from, one side was lined one side not. it has nothing to do with the actual die and how the dies were prepared. the obverse of the planchet was lined previous to entering the dies because one side of the sheet it was cut from was lined, the other side was polished and or not lined. a mistake (planchet error) yes, and this is why I bought it. due to computer recognition the planchet with a lined back ground or matte finish is alined with the dies as upon entering so the lines (grain of the finish)line up with the bust of the coin making it symmetrical.

the coin in question features a different DIE combination not normally seen in these specimen coins. one was sandblasted and prepared for specimen coins and the other one(obverse) not so. also, THIS KEVIN WOULD LIKE TO ADD, it looks to me in the pictures provided, the RCM used a die that was not intended for specimen coinage, it looks as though there is a difference in the size and details of the bust.

as I mentioned before in my ramblings that if both is true(we know one die was not sandblasted) that this is a monster mule of sorts. if there is a different bust size this is a different die. I will be watching this forum because I am on the verge of buying this coin. I like you people telling me to be weary, but I will have you know I have been collecting mules for years, I still think this is a mule, but it is due to the technology that they are now using at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory which adds further confusion to the definition of mule.

i just purchased a PL65 mountie quarter large bust mule to go along with my circulation strike mule. now you guys got me wondering if it's a mule because it came in a mint set?
OVER AND OUT... FOR NOW
KEV

Just arrived from TOREX where I had the opportunity to examine a few Linx sets

the 10c on a few sets indeed IS a mule - no doubt about it

Now regarding Canadian strikes: there are 4 strikes - the business (struck in Winnipeg); the uncirculated set (ex- proof-like), the specimen and the proof, these 3 always struck in Ottawa (do not confound the uncirculated set with the souvenir sets - these are assembled from business strikes)

Proofs are just like the US proofs - silver stuff with cameo and sometimes reverse cameo. Specimen are coins minted with fresh dies, they are double struck on special prepared planchets. Specimens have gorgeous cameos square edges and lettering. Uncirculated are minted under high pressure with special dies and planchets, resulting on a brilliant finish.

I hope this helps

I saw the guy with these in his display case and didn't think to ask to examine them. Was this coin in any of them?

"I saw the guy with these in his display case ..."

6 dealers had sets - I don't know which one you are talking about ... but I will assume yes :-)

Good on you t_y- good on you I say.

We need a go getter out there and you are a true go getter.

I hate to say it - but

I told you so!

Kev is high on mules

Kev

In my opinion, using a die that was intended to be on a proof-like set to strike a proof coin is a mule. A mule is using a die pairing that was not intended to go together. This includes multi-country issues, the 1973 Mountie quarter, the wrong date on the Olympic coins, the Nunuvut Toonie without the ring (this is the closest- a reverse die intended for another type of striking). This is an obverse die intended for another type of coin.

The reason that confusion remains regarding whether this coin is a mule or not is that CCN completely failed in its description of this dime. It is not an NBU dime put into a specimen set as the article indicates, but rather a mule created by a specimen reverse being paired with a NBU obverse. The only accurate statement I saw in the article was the comment that all of the sets were numbered with a COA starting with 08----.
Over the summer I have been in contact with a number of individuals who have these coins and have been made aware of two moderately sized runs from within the 08---- COA. I can with some confidence state that the mule coins are found within the range of 08300+- to 08900+- in the COAs. Further, in the runs of numbers I have located; i.e boxes of sets, (one run was of a few less than 48, that is two boxes, the other was the remnant of a box that contained 11 sets) some 2 in 5 sets contained mules while the remainder contained regular specimen dimes. If this is the case and these stats are consistent within this run of approximately 600 numbers this would mean that there are some 240 of these mules extant.

Please send your COAs into this forum to add to this data set. In this case the COAs are the means to discovering the mintage of this apparently rare coin.