Another One Of The Helped Errors Just Certified By NGC

That's one neat looking coin.

I have absolutely no problems with the grading services certifying these coins -- it is nice, after all, to know exactly what happened in the life of a coin. However, I think there should be another designation outside of "Mint error". Of course, there is no way this could have been done without human effort. However, because we recognize items like foreign planchets used, it is fair to certify these as something.

Now, whether they are worth the prices asked is another question entirely. My thinking would be no error collector would really want something like this as it wasn't an error made through the regular processes put in place by the Mint, ie an accident. This was purely intentional and, IMO, more of a novelty.

Uh-huh, removed from circulation.....

As the article indicates, these are more likely to be genuine (i.e. accidental) errors than intentional errors. They all carry the date 1964, all but one of the host coins are canceled, and they come from both the Philadelphia and Denver Mints. For these to be intentional errors you'd have to invoke a cross-country conspiracy. That's unlikely, as is the choice to use canceled coins. My suspicion is that the US Mint was shipping in and melting down obsolete, canceled Indian coins to extract the silver and a few slipped into the production chain.