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 Replies: 21 / Views: 3,867 |
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Valued Member
United States
140 Posts |
I do not have personal knowledge that this story is accurate, although I would be clueless as to why the person who told it to me would have any reason to lie to me. Anyhow, here goes. I was at a coin shop a few weeks ago that is about 70 miles from where I live. I try to go to this shop whenever I can because the dealer is a real pleasure to do business with. So I'm talking to the dealer, just discussing coins, collecting, etc... We got on the subject of error coins. We were also discussing how we probably spent a small fortune in rare coins before we were collectors and didn't know what we had. At that time it was just money. The dealer then proceeds to tell me that his whole family has been in the banking business since the 1930's. He said that his grandfather was a bank manager in a Philadelphia bank in 1955. (Some of you probably know where this is going.  ) He said that one of the tellers at the bank opened a new roll of 1955 pennies, looked at them and said "These coins are no good, they are mistakes. We need to send these back to the mint". She had opened a BU roll of 1955 Double Die Cents and sent them back to the mint. She could have bought the roll for 50 cents, but she saw them as mistakes and sent them back. Oh the insanity   Anyway, I just thought this was an interesting story. Edited by Dkillett
03/16/2011 02:47 am
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Valued Member
United States
320 Posts |
My grandfather had a similar story. He was working at a Blakely's gas station, and he and the owner happened to notice the doubled cents. They had three rolls, and their comment to one another was "somebody sure messed up when they made these!" And then they handed them out in change.
Now, being the wrong area of the country, I am not 100% on the specifics of this story- but grandpa swore to it (and swore about it too!) till the day he died. And it turned him into a collector... when we went through his collection not too long ago, it was obvious that he started his collection in the mid 50's, both by the circulated condition of anything prior (he collected from circulation, I believe he was too thrifty to pa above face), and then interestingly there were 5 or 6 rolls of 1957 cents which were never opened. I'm thinking once he found out what he might have had he rushed out and tried to buy rolls, hoping lightning would strike twice.
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Valued Member
United States
286 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1150 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3184 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19930 Posts |
I'm sure there's many accurate stories like these. Most people didn't realize what the error was and had no idea it would be so valuable in the future.
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Valued Member
United States
134 Posts |
Wow can you imagine what those rolls would be worth today
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7629 Posts |
First off - it's NOT an error - it's a die variety, and there is a BIG difference between the two.
Secondly - ANYONE who says they opened a fresh roll of coins and ALL of them were a doubled die - is simply mistaken or lying. That does not happen...and never has. The mint operated a number of machines at once, and all the resulting coins were dumped into huge bins before being bagged. Once bagged, they were sent to the Fed Reserve in bags, which would distribute them to banks that had rolling machines. The chances of ALL 50 coins in a 1955 roll being doubled dies would be so astronomically high, it could easily be written off as all but impossible.
The MOST of any one die I have EVER found in a fresh roll is 28. That's just over half of them, and that was VERY unusual.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4897 Posts |
Voice or reason again coppercoins! Personally I've always written these stories off as urban legend. Sorry but the skeptic in me is strong.
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Valued Member
 United States
140 Posts |
Again, I'm not saying the story is true, but then who am I to argue that it isn't. I wasn't there, so I can't deny that it's untrue. I was just relaying a story told to me. Yes I will agree, the odds of that are astronomical, but stranger things have happened.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
As far as I know, all of the 1955 DDOs were distributed in the New England area. If you hear someone telling a story about finding a roll at their gas station register in Arizona, it is probably a tall tale  Mintage is estimated at 20-25,000 coins so there could only ever be 400-500 full rolls possible but in reality, they were swimming in a sea of millions of other 1955s. |
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Moderator
 United States
187446 Posts |
Quote:
Again, I'm not saying the story is true, but then who am I to argue that it isn't. I wasn't there, so I can't deny that it's untrue. I was just relaying a story told to me. Yes I will agree, the odds of that are astronomical, but stranger things have happened. Hey, the story of Star Wars is not true, but that does not mean I do not like hearing it.  |
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New Member
United States
41 Posts |
i grew up in central illinois .i remember going to the candy store with my cousin.i had five shiny new pennies.i remember showing my cousin this weird penny.it was a doubled 1955 penny.i preceeded to purchase my candy with it.i was 5 yrs old.
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Valued Member
United States
380 Posts |
Oh man... Imagine that.
I'm going to have to give my grand parents a call and see if they collect any piggy banks or anything...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
958 Posts |
Coppercoins replacing folklore , stories , myths with truths.....
That should be in your sig chuck
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Valued Member
United States
161 Posts |
Another '55 doubled die story:
I heard that the owner of my local coin store found one of these on the ground when he was a boy, thought it looked funny, and proceded to throw it into a river.
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Replies: 21 / Views: 3,867 |
Posted 03/16/2011 03:16 am
