Undated Mushroom Cent-Size Of A Franklin Half

Very neat coin! Thanks for posting.
John1

Funny you should say that. Most people who see this coin are sure that it's something I faked. I'm talking about people with no idea of how coins are made, so they think I've just hammered out the Cent without thinking that the damage wouldn't leave anything that looked like this. They also don't think that it could have any value over a Cent. I have an offer of $45.00 on it, but I'm not sure I should sell it for that. It's twice what I paid, but that was 20 years ago and I'm really starting to like this coin all over again.

It's a broad-strike with an indent from the other coin(s) that got caught in the process. You can see the lines from the Memorial and what looks like letters from a partial brokage of at least 2 or more coins. Before 2001 the mint was kind of poor with quality control and didn't do a very good job of keeping errors from leaving the mint in mint sewn bags.

As for how it made it out of the mint, my old coin dealer used to have a guy that came in about every 6-8 months with mint bags full of current year errors. He never told the dealer his name, but he did tell them at one point he worked for a company that counted and rolled coins for banks in the Dallas area. He had to have been a supervisor because he was able to pool all the rejected coins and get them to the coin dealer.

I bought errors from them for years and could count on a call when the guy made his visit.

I went into the shop one day and asked if they had any new errors, but the supply had dried up. I guess the guy either got caught or moved on, because they never saw him again. I'm sure if he was caught removing coins from his company he was fired as any error coins found were to be returned to the mint for destruction.

I've read stories about mint employees causing errors and coin "clusters" and some how getting them out of the mint. As I understand it, the Quarter/Dollar mules were made by employees at the mint who used friends of friends to say that they found them so they could sell them and split the sale price. I'm not sure how many of the employees were finally caught, but I do remember hearing about 45+ year jail terms for stealing mint property.

Anyone out there know more about this than I do? I'm talking about things that happened 10 years ago and I don't remember my way home some days. I'll do some research and see if I can find some old news stories on this.

As for the star-burst effect, I've heard it called the zinc "Ring of Fire." Here's a Reverse Die Cap Cent I have with the same thing. It's a 2001 MS-63 Red graded by ANACS.

That's pretty spectacular I'd recommend holding onto it $45 seems too low probably want to get at least a C note for it.

The mushroom is starting to get to me. I want to keep it now, but I has 2 more days before I can stop worrying about someone buying it. It is hands down the most spectacular error I have. As for the Die Cap Cent, I'm in sell mode in it, but no one wants to pay me $125. I have a 1921 Morgan with a clip that I would sell before the mushroom now.

I spent about 2 hours going over the photos I took and using a 100X lighted magnifier on the coin last night and I want to keep it. I'm not going to pull the auction because I'm not that kind of seller, but now I hope it doesn't sell. (Weird, huh?)

I think I will have it slabbed just to get a true grade.

I've always wondered how a crushed, twisted, torn and discolored coin can get a MS-65 Red when most of it is zinc, but they do it. I have about 30 graded errors with the highest a PR-68 Struck Through String. It's a Washington quarter and the string looks like an extra nose. I have never had any coin graded. Any errors I have bought graded are PCGS, NGC and ANACS. I have 10 Missing Edge Letter, Weak Edge Letter and Doubled Presidential both Overlapped and Inverted. All range from MS64 to MS-66 with one a First Day Cover MS-66 Washington MEL and several DDOs Half and Cent and D/D, D/S, S/S and one S/S/S Cent. I also bought a few Brilliant Uncirculated "Waffled" Coins. Mostly State Quarters and one SBA.

Other than that, your correct. I just like the error, the grade is secondary.

If I ever get a Cheerios Dollar, I will have it graded, but it's really a variety, not an error.

Incredible error coin! Thanks for sharing it with us! I would probably just want to keep it too.