Jefferson Nickel 1976 Error

Very nice, thanks for posting the other side of the coin! Looks like it's still got it's steps too with a lot of details; good signs it hasn't been circulating much. Can't imagine the cashier didn't notice and grab it for herself!

i think it is more than one planchet.

I said that because I didn't know what you just told me. thanks

CoinMasters: If you are referring to the reverse above the Monticello as wear I believe that to be weakness in the strike. If you are talking about the minor scratches: It's a good thing it was passed through their hands and not their pockets! A '76 with that little pocket wear is pretty nice.

I've reversed, flipped the Monticello upside down, rescaled the images so the coin matches up and changed the opacity and came up with the image below. Appears it was off-center and MAD. You can see the Jefferson strike was higher than the Monticello strike causing that weakness on the reverse.

(Not sure the regulations on this kind of stuff but I hope you don't mind me using your images for this post res18fgl)


I'm not sure if it is common for off-center to be MAD as well.. If not, an even better find than I thought! : ) Nice one

CoinMasters, sorry, I don't know very much about coin collecting. You asked "RES18FG1 What exactly is it? it looks like more than just an off center."

Embarrassingly, I don't know what you are asking me.

BlueSolo, I have never noticed the steps on a Jefferson nickel before. Looking at this nickel closely, you are correct, I can see the steps.

res18fgl: MAD is Misaligned Die. This means the hammer die is off center. I'm still a new guy learning about coins myself but to me that weak strike you see above the Monticello made me think that this coin not only has an off center strike on the planchet but the hammer die was off strike as well. I pulled your images and lined them up the correct way and you can clearly see that weakness is right where the hammer did not strike the anvil die when it was out of alignment.

Again, I'm not sure if it is common for a off-center to be MAD as well especially with that much offset of the hammer and anvil die.. an expert would have to chime in about that : )

I think CoinMasters two planchet (yes, coin blank) theory was because of the oval shape of the coin, it's not perfectly round but as CelticKnot explained it's normal for an off-center

Looking at nickels a lot and reading about them, heavily circulated coins usually have pocket wear that causes loss of detail on the hair, steps, faded pillars, windows. Handle on the edges, don't stain your fingerprints on it, don't clean it. I'd put it in a 2x2 for safe keeping until you decide what to do with it. If you're interested in collecting coins hang onto it. If you're thinking of selling, make sure you know all about it before doing so.

Amazing isn't it that the coin was circulating as if normal.