Can Someone Explain To Me How This Happens? (1970 S Quarter Overstrike)

Looks like "mint sport", not uncommon in the 60's and 70's.

This mint worker took a big risk for such a little reward.





But I tell you what, I'll give you $100 for it right now cause I'm such a nice guy.

This can't just 'Happen.' It can be done, but it was intentional.

The San Fransico mint had so many 'assisted' errors in 1970. Some so wild, like this one, that it shouldn't be called a mint error.

It's also obvious that the coin was struck with plans to recover the coin and illegally remove it from the mint property. While the price of gold was just $35-$37 per troy ounce at the time, it doesn't seem like something that was done as a joke. It seems like they were trying to create something they could sell. I'm sure that if this worker was caught at any point in the process of this crime, they would have faced arrest and federal charges.

This looks to be part of a group of 'Assisted Errors' that have sold for thousands of dollars in the last few years. I don't think the workers who were part of this ever thought of values on the coins like we're seeing today. These coins also caused a large number of articles and videos telling collectors to "Check Your Coins! for errors like this," while each one is unique.

I agree. We need a new designation on TPG slabs of Assisted Mint Error, as John1 says.

I agree that this type of thing is not an error at all, more of a novelty. Kind of like a magician coin where one side is one denomination, and the other side is a different denomination.
John1