1957 Goof?

[Imahik]

I know that this is probably frivolous, but I have about a hundred AU and BU 1957 cents. I know, I know; they are worth about six or eight cents a piece. 5 or 6 of the hundred have a little something between the “B” and the “E” in “LIBERTY.” So, I guess that means it happened about 5% of the time using linear thinking. Lol. The picture isn’t very good. Is it a blurb or a goof or is it a letter or something under the “E”?
http://home.comcast.net/~dennis_moncrief/1957obe.jpg
Chuck, because of the high value of this coin, $0.07, I would be willing to send you one of them. Thanks again.
Dennis

[coop]

That is the result of a die break along that area that is weak. It is commonly refered to as a "BIE" Cent. Some of the coins have that break showing in that location. Some collect them. In the 1960's they were the rage, today they are just an error that you see on ebay from time to time. Very small if any premium for them though. The dies in several of the years were over used and worked till the DIEd. I found a roll of 1954-p Cents that are BU, but all Very VLDS. Not a pretty to roll to look at, but that happened to the dies in the 40's & 50's alot. Hope this helps.

[Imahik]

Thank you, sir. I bet the “BIE” classification has increased the value of my coin to $0.08. If the BIEs are so common and the subject of interest to, at least, a few, I wonder why there isn’t a category for them in my coin books.

[Bob P]

As Coop stated, the BIEs used to be very collectible. There is somthing out there that actually catalogs them, but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the book. I do know that a book called 'Major Variety and Oddity Guide of United States Coins' by Frank Spandone (4th edition from 1967) list many of those, and actually attempts to price them, but of course those prices are unrealistic and overly optimistic. In addition, there have been many other coins since 1967 that have the BIE or LIIB die break. The most recent I have is from 1995. I do put them away when I find them. I believe I have about 3 rolls of them, and some of them are quite interesting to look at...but that's about it.
That doesn't mean they are any less collectible. Some folks still enjoy searching for them (including me). It's just that if you are planning to get rich off them, I don't think it's going to get you where you are hoping to go.

[JRocco]

Hi Dennis, Some of the BIE's are really cool, I always put them aside also. There are also LII, IIB, EIR, RIT, TIY and other combo's also. Here is a different one that I really like.

[Robert]

Looks like lips and or a mouth. Cool!

[Imahik]

Mr. Rocco,
First, let me say that I am jealous of the photos. It looks like you took them with a scanning electron microscope. I am in the process of acquiring some photo equipment and am now in the “gather information” stage. Your photos look stellar. What’d you use?
As Robert noticed, it looks like lips and … a mouth. I thought it looked like Abe’s ear. That is why I originally though that it was some kind of transient strike. I have six BU 1957 BIEs and they all seem to have a different pattern between the B & E.
Dennis

[coppercoins]

These oddities are all caused by weakness in the individual dies (hundreds of them) that struck the coins. These weaknesses show most in the date and LIBERTY. The reason why they are different shapes and sizes is two-fold. First, they are different dies, and they break in different manners. Second, single dies have progression in the breaks which grow as the broken die continues to mint coins. They are very common as you have already found.

An attempt was made to catalog and list all of them at one time, in fact a national club was formed in the early 1970s for collectors. Since then collector interest in them has waned quite a bit. Now they are available for around a dollar each and usually are difficult to sell - experience on that one.

have fun.

[JRocco]

Hi Dennis. Call me John. I tip my hat to Chuck's answer. As to my pics, I took them with a cheap Digital Blue scope (Intel) that I have modified slightly to let me control the lighting a little better. Welcome.