MAD Dime

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MisAligned Dies or MAD for short are error coins that have one side slightly off-center because the die hit it wrong. The coin enters the collar and a die from above (hammer die) hits the coin and simultaneously the pressure causes the bottom die (anvil die) to leave an impression on the coin. If the hammer die is slightly off the back and edge would be normal only the front would be off. Many MAD varieties exist but this is the most common.

The most obvious sign is on the rim where it looks like the dime has two edges. This is often mislabeled as "railroad rim" but that is another type of error where the edge is struck partially out collar. There is no good nickname for this error but it is common.

It is most common amongst dimes, the small size is partially to blame. Finding them in all coins is possible but the quarters and dimes are most obvious since the edge is reeded. Unless the misalignment causes part of the design to get cut off it has no extra value. Ignoring the eBay sales of these common coins they are not popular among collectors if minor or heavily circulated. Often the centered side is very weak but if both sides are misaligned they can have weak spots. Only extreme misaligned dies have real value and then they get odd looking.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 10 Cents / United States
Year: 1998 P
Mintage: 1,163,000,000
Metal: 91.67% Copper, 8.33% Nickel
Value: $0.10  in F-12

Do you have a U.S. dime and want to know its value? Leave a comment / question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1996 British Penny

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Odds of winning the $587,000,000 Powerball lottery is 1:175,223,510.
Odds of finding a British coin in your American change 1:14,610 (in the U.K. it is 1:1).

Do not ask about the formula I used it is a complicated permutation that is probably off by 5-95%. Still finding a coin from across the pond is not that rare. I mentioned before how the royal wedding and the recent Olympics would make British coins more common globally.

Currently I see no other global events that will lead to mass travel like the Olympics. Although Greece just found a fix for their financial crisis. If it holds up then Euros will be flowing again outside of Europe since they have slowed down over the last year.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Penny / Great Britain
Year: 1996
Mintage: 723,840,000
Metal: Copper-Plated Steel
Value: $0.03 in VF (very-fine)

Do you have a coin from Great Britain and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1981 $20 Bill, B-E

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It has no "modern" security features and in the 1980s was counterfeited more than every other note in the world. This note is about thirty years old and would likely pass the "pen test" in banks. That test uses either the pH value of money, which should be high, or the starchiness, which should not exist. The problem is that old notes pick up so much the often fail the pen test. Still nothing is as accurate as holding the money and feeling it to see this old note is real.

Another changed in these notes were the size of the sheets printed at once. Previously they printed 40,000 sheets (1,280,000 notes) for each run. Thanks to better machines they started printing 100,000 sheets (3,200,000 notes) per run.  Each year the printing gets better and some new presses around the world can handle huge sheets and runs close to a million. I am not sure what the U.S. is doing but maybe one day I can take a trip to D.C. and see it in person.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $20 Note - D.C. / New York
Year: 1981
Printings: 99,840,000
Printed: October 1983
Run: 8th of 31 from B25600001E - B28800000E
Value: $25.00 in EF

Do you have currency and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Coined For Money: Round-Up Nov. 19-25, 2012

Look at these coin stories I dug up this week.

After 3 years buried a $10,000 treasure chest full of golden dollars is dug up and given to charity since no one found it using the obscure clues at the We Lost Our Gold site. I tried but never was even close.

Found in a potato field a rare coin is resold for $430,000. Another find dug up in New York yet all my finds have been on the surface not below it.

My find was just a simple 2012 dime but it is a first for me so that is precious.

2012-P Dime

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The year is almost over and just found a 2012 dime, actually I found two of them, which is earlier than usual. Hoping that Black Friday brings more finds but the debit/credit card usage seems to be strong this year.

These are normal dimes as they have not seen a major design change since 1946. The only change was in composition in 1965 when the silver was replaced with copper nickel but that was not in design. Back to turkey left overs and a long weekend ahead.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 10 Cents / United States
Year: 2012 P
Mintage: 719,000,000 (estimated )
Metal: 91.67% Copper, 8.33% Nickel
Value: $0.10  in AU-50

Do you have a U.S. dime and want to know its value? Leave a comment / question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1989 Canada Cent

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Found two Canadian cents this week this 1989 and a 2005 previously featured. Both are common and I can only guess the sudden influx has to do with Thanksgiving shoppers using every last cent they have to buy food. Yes both were given back to me as change at a Key Food Supermarket, since apples are in season I will make several trips this month.

Yes I found both of these cents before but being copper and not American will let me do what ever I want to them. For now I will leave them in a box but soon maybe I will get access to an oven and crucible. Even if I do not they are little copper pieces that I can use in future experiments.

Here's the stats...

Type / Country: 1 Cent / Canada
Year: 1989
Mintage: 1,077,347,200
Metal: 98% Copper, 0.5% Tin, 1.5% Zinc
Value: $0.02 in XF

Do you have a Canadian coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you

1990 $20 Bill, I-A

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This one of the first $20 notes printed in Fort Worth, Texas. In May of 1985 a study is commissioned by The Bureau of Engraving and Printing to have a western facility opened to better serve the western U.S. and serve as a back up. By 1986 Fort Worth is chosen and by December 1990 they started printing notes.

These 1990 notes were also the first to feature polymer security strips and micro-printing. At this point the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was prepared to modernize our money. U.S. money lacked many common security features but upgrading the money meant upgrading the printers. To do this a back up is needed because printing money is non-stop.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $20 Note - Fort Worth / Minneapolis
Year: 1990
Printings: 70,400,000
Printed: June 1994
Run: 8th of 11 from I51200001A - I57600000A
Value: $20.00 in VF 

Some may notice an extra serial number close to the date in purple.

This was not part of the original design instead it is a bank stamp. These notes were once bundled and shipped from one bank to another. To keep track they were strapped together and the straps had a unique identification number stamped on it. Often the thin straps were partially missed and the bank information was marked on the top bill. This does not add value and in most cases would lower the value.

Do you have currency and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Coined For Money: Round-Up Nov. 12-18, 2012

Making, taking, and shaping coins is all the rage this week.

Japan won a contract to make Bangladesh 2 Taka (2 cents U.S., enough for a small lunch in that country) coins and that may be a beginning for the huge India region coin making contract.

Minneapolis had its last coin only parking meter pulled. The new meter do take coins but are popular because they also don't need to take coins. Also they are solar power so less maintenance.

A Delaware coin dealer who doesn't have a license to scrap metal is fighting the law even though it is been around since 1921. (Ignore the comments on that linked page since they are delusional trolls)

A man uses hand tools to make rings out of coins. For about $50 this guy will spoon your silver coin.

I displayed my small collection of dollar coins and threw in a bit of history.

The Dollar Coin

The United States dollar coin to be exact. I have featured most types that were circulated over the past 130+ years and it is interesting to see how they changed. It is not only the metal and size but the popularity that has really changed.

Authorized by an act of the 1792 U.S. Congress these HUNDRED CENTS coins were meant to be silver and large. Shortly after that they ceased production and that on and off production continues even today. Gold dollar coins became the standard in the 1850s and that would also change several times.

Check out the comparison above. Of course there are more types but these were the most circulated and popular (plus the only ones I have on hand).

1878-1921 Morgan Dollars (far left pictured)
Very popular and the iconic silver coin. An 1873 law changed the standard gold dollar to 90% silver and the Morgan was born. Design was simple and featured Liberty and all the symbols of early America. By 1904 the silver bullion was exhausted and the coins ceased production. A quarter of a billion of these coins were melted to make new coins in 1921 when they changed over to the Peace Dollar (1921-1935)

1971-1978 Eisenhower Dollar (center left pictured)
Not counting the 1964 Peace Dollar, that were all melted and never circulated, a huge fifty year gap of production took place. The rising value of silver and many other factors explained the gap but the effect on people was unique. As a people Americans forgot about dollar coins. They were no longer seen as convenient or better than a paper dollar. They became old fashioned and stuff of westerns that were two generation removed from our modern world. Still to honor both President Eisenhower and the moon landing these coins were authorized.

To say they fail would not be fair but sort of accurate.

1979-1999 Susan B. Anthony Dollar (center right pictured)
The complaints of the large dollars and to finally honor a real woman on coin the mint changed to this almost quarter sized dollar. After just two years the unpopular coin, often confused for a quarter, stopped circulating and by 1981 they just stopped. Suddenly vending machines especially the New York City MetroCard machines were in desperate need of dollar coins. It was so bad that the vaults were opened and rat dropping covered Anthony dollars were shipped to NYC for use. The need for new 1999 dollars were satisfied with a one year issue.

2000-2008 Sacagawea Dollar (far right pictured)
The need for the dollar being strong again the mint redesigned the dollar coin making it still vending machine friendly but looking completely unique. The golden dollar has no gold but plenty of copper and manganese. The finishes on early coins were bad they tarnished quickly they were still usable but not liked. Enough were being used that they branched off into Presidential dollars and Native American dollars. Then came the debit card and smartphone which made small change a burden once again. Officially the Sacagawea dollar ended in 2008 but the golden dollar kept going until now.

2012--  (pictured?)
We will see the last circulating dollars and despite the strong demand in foreign countries America will move onto the the less bulky options. Dollar bills, apps, and plastic will slowly replace these coins but as I far as I can tell NYC vending machines will insist on giving you back change in old dollar coins. I have skipped many commemorative, older dollars, and bullion type but they probably will continue to be more popular than most of those listed above.

2000 Ingenuity Canada Quarter

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Going through my Canadian coin vault and found more commemorative circulating quarters. This one is the second of the 2000 millennium series. Each month had a different coin representing the hopes and dreams of the Canadian future. February was Ingenuity and highlights the technological advancements.

Apparently satellite dishes are the cutting edge of the future. High speed rail and I think solar farms are also featured. Some sort of futuristic plane is flying over the city and unless Canada has some sort of secret UFO program I have not seen these planes yet.
 

 

The lack of good lighting is starting to annoy me so please excuse the odd pictures.

The coin also has the French INGÉNIOSITÉ because the still have a large French speaking population. Most Canadian coins are not multilingual but for many commemorative coins they add the second language. Not sure what is the rule but it seems pretty scattered.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 25 Cents-February Ingenuity / Canada
Year: 2000
Mintage: 35,812,988
Metal: 100% Nickel
Value: $0.25 in EF-40

Do you have a Canadian quarter and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Novelty 1981 $100 Bill

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Back in the early 1980s I was at South Street Seaport and they had a vendor at the mall selling fake money of all types. I saw the giant $100 bill and knew it should be part of my small and collection. About thirty years later I still have it. I cannot recall how much it cost at the time but I am sure it was way under $5.00.

 

 Do you see the difference? It is12.5" x 5.5" compared to the normal 6.1" x 2.6".

Some of you may ask if this is legal. Well it is because the normal bill has had the same dimensions for such a long time and the previous notes were only slightly bigger that it is legal to assume these will never pass as real.

The law is iffy and kind of vague but basically you so not have to put the word COPY on a fake note if it is "significantly" different from the original. A yellow, blue, or pink, copy of a normal bill was enough to be considered legal until the introduction of colorized. So now stickers are placed on top of real notes when these novelty notes are sold. It is cheaper and more legal than trying to make a copy.

I am sure the giants notes are still sold but I have been to South Street Seaport many times and have yet to see them sold again. The one above is double-sided, has no COPY, and is exact in every way to a real 1981 note except for the paper and size. Today the fakes are usually one-sided, has COPY or something similar, and are never exact.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: Novelty $100 Note / Philadelphia
Year: 1981
Printings: Unknown
Printed: Unknown
Run: Not applicable.
Value: $1.00 in VF(the one above is kind of stained)

Do you have currency and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Coined For Money: Round-Up Nov. 5-11, 2012

Well the business of coins is doing well. This week the links reflect how coins can still be fun and profitable.

First up a man opened a coin shop years ago and still loves his job even if he does not sell and gives coins away.

Next a couple who bought some Salvation Army gold coins drops are reselling them to give back to the charity, the coins are worth 4 times more but they expect 40 times at a charity auction.

Wanting a copper bathroom a woman uses pennies to tile her bathroom. A thin coat of wax lets you feel each cent, and some maybe wheaties.

As for me I found a 2012 euro cent and in currency exchange it is 0.013 cents so that is technically a profit.

2012 G German Euro Cent

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Despite all the talk that the smaller Euro coins are not being used I managed to find in my change yesterday a one euro cent. Not just a small cent but from 2012. A brand new euro coin from Germany is not what expected after these stormy times in the city.

This is a tiny coin and the lack of sunshine in the morning forced me to use fluorescent kitchen light. The color is off because of the lighting and since winter is here getting good light will be tough.

From what I heard about Europe they do not use small coins like the 1 or 2 euro cent coins. At least Germany is still making them every year by the hundreds of millions. Although this is from the Karlsruhe mint, thus the G before the date, which is always the lowest minted. Some Euro countries round up and stopped using these coins. These coins are still issued to stop the rampant overcharging Europeans were predicted to do if these small coins did not exist.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Euro Cent / Germany
Year: 2012-G
Mintage: 72,940,000 (estimated)
Metal: Copper Plated Steel: 94.35% Steel 5.65% Copper
Value: $0.05 in F

Do you have a Euro coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1867-1992 Ontario Quarter

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Long before the U.S. decided to make state quarters Canada had issued twelve province and territories quarters. It was Canada's 125th anniversary of confederation in 1992 and hold a national contest where voters choose the design for each. They celebrated with official ceremonies in each capital of the corresponding province or territory.

Of course the one I found is the most common.

Do not get confused the dual date of 1867-1992 just means it was issued in 1992. The official release was August 6, 1992 and it was the eighth in the series. A new design came out about once every month and marked a turning point for circulating commemorative coins.

Before these quarters countries would release only a few coins over the year that would circulate. For 1992 Canada released 13 commemorative coins as well as the modified regular coins. America would soon follow by 1997 already having the 50 state quarters program made into law.

As for Canada they continued with that tradition and for the millennium, 1999 & 2000 (although the real millennium is 2001), they issued 24 commemorative quarters.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 25 Cents-Ontario / Canada
Year: 1992
Mintage: 14,263,000
Metal: 100% Nickel
Value: $0.25 in EF-40

Do you have a Canadian quarter and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1995 $20 Bill, F-C

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The last of the old fashion twenties that most of us grew up knowing. It lacks the multicolor of new bills and has smaller features. It does have a security strip but lacks many of the common security features on modern notes which in a time of home printing became a big concern.

 

Even when the the 1995 series notes were approved the fact that people can scan and print at home was a concern. Slowly scanners and printers had software installed that prevents U.S. notes and bills to get copied. For counterfeiters it was getting easier to go around that issue so it was up to the government to find a new design and new features that make copying harder.

For those "old folks" like me who liked the old design this 1995 series note marks an end of an era. Current money seems funny like Monopoly money. Do not get me wrong I will still use and earn more but the look is odd if you grew up with the old type.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $20 Note - Fort Worth / Atlanta
Year: 1995
Printings: 307,200,000
Printed: May 1997
Run: 4th of 15 from F19200001C - F25600000C
Value: $20.00 in VF 

Do you have currency and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Coined For Money: Round-Up Oct.31-Nov. 4, 2012

Some post Hurricane coin news and stories.

I have friends who live right on the beach and the sea washed out the entire first floor and their neighbors had their houses float away. Hoarding coins, silver, and gold would be useless. Even the ground under your feet was washed away. For all those thinking gold and silver would be great under a collapsed system this storm proved that it would be a useless burden. Food, heat, water, and family photos are worth much more. Invest in solar power and things that lets you be self sufficient. Plan for the worse and plan for the best!

Got a coin to make a call, apparently payphones were in high demand as lack of power crippled modern life. Many people lost coins to those payphones because they forgot how or never used a payphone.

A wedding coin was found in the debris after the storm. They were made to commemorate the newlywed and should be buried at their home for luck. Oh it is only worth $15.00, more personally valuable than monetary value.

Lost a box of gold, well some found one in Roswell...Georgia not the UFO place.

The older nickel I found recently was pre-storm and I do not expect to find anything until I can get back to work.

1953-D Nickel

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This older nickel was a nice find. It is worn but the luster and definition is still good. For an almost sixty year old coin that stayed in circulation it is really not bad.

 
This was the last coin I found before Hurricane Sandy hit and while my area is fine I have not been able to travel outside this small area. One reason I get such a diverse coin find is that I go shop around a lot in NYC. While events and disasters affect everyone differently it usually forces people to use cash. That cash is generally not special or old since it comes from banks and stores and keeps going like that in circles. With people displaced or in the dark searching for coins in piggy banks are not worth it.

Be safe everyone just because the storm is over does not mean it is safe.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 5 Cents / United States of America
Year: 1953-D
Mintage: 59,878,600
Metal: 75% copper 25% nickel
Value: $0.10 in Almost Uncirculated (AU-50) this one is less

Want to know if your nickel has more than face value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.