"ERROR" MANIA

[wavysteps2003]

As I paged through Ebay's listings on error coins this morning, I am still utterly amazed at the amount of 2005 Buffalo nickel "error" coins that are listed and the hype associated to them. Of course, they are not the only new type coin that has similar listings; the State's quarter comes in a close second.

It started out with the "high or low leaf" Wisconsin quarter and snowballed from there. Now you can see "a man catching a fish", "the moon/sun rising over the mountains", "Indian smoke signals", "missing shrubs", "fat leaves" etc. and that is just on the various State quarters.

The 2005 Buffalo nickel has a whole array of things happening to it, with both the Buffalo and yes Jefferson also bearing numerous names to desribe what has happened on these "error" dies. The poor Buffalo has been "speared" not only through its back (the most famous, deserving an F/S number and being slabbed) but also its butt, "tomahawked" in the chest, bitten by a "snake" in the grass, had one leg "disconnected", had an "extra" leg added, had an "extra" horn added, had an "extra" tail added, had an "extra" eye added, causing the poor animal so much stress that he had to "pee".
Of course president Jefferson, seeing this damage to the Buffalo, blew his mind, creating "boogers" on his nose and to grow facial hair in the form of a "beard". This also caused him to grow a second "eye" and in one case, I guess due to pressure from him blowing up, to totally wiping out the word "LIBERTY".

Now what does this all mean to us? For one thing, those of us that have a quantity of bank rolled Buffalo nickels are blissfully watching every Tom, Dick and Harry rip open every available roll of nickels that they can get their hands on to search for these inconsequential "errors" so that they too can jump on the current money bandwagon. Look at what happened to the 2004 Peace nickel from the Philly Mint; try touching a roll for less than $15.00 today and that was because of the obverse doubled die. Will this happen to the 2005 Buffalo nickel? Only time will tell.

Quite a few years back this "error" mania flourished, with yes you guessed it, every die break, scratch, chip, gouge being called some fancifully name or other. Can anyone remember those names now? I can think of one; the "alligator" on a Jefferson nickel reverse die, year unknown, but then again, I was not collecting coins at the time these names were given. Eventually this craze died out, with the only thing in die breaks being collected were the large rim breaks (cuds) and the Lincoln cent "BIES", "IIES, "LIIS", etc. Will history repeat itself or will the era of die mishaps continue. Now don't get me wrong, errors are neat, however, I like varieties better.

The point to this whole post is, be careful what you buy. Don't let current trends dictate what you should buy and that also applies to variety coins as well. Just last year, when the 2004 Lincoln cents were discovered with doubled dies, both obverse and reverse, from both Mints, everyone went wild. Top money was paid for these inital listings on Ebay with prices of $200.00, $300.00 and even $400.00 dollars for a single doubled die! Look at the listings on Ebay today and see if you can find just one of these doubled dies up for sale and if you do find a listing for one, you can probably get it for a tenth of what they were origanally selling for. Use CAUTION and common sense.

So now that I have given you my thoughts for this day, such a deal I have for you. Yes ladies and gentlemen, straight from a proof mint roll of 2005 "VIEW OF THE PACIFIC" nickel, you can see the conning tower of a "SUBMARINE" as it surfaces in the Pacific ocean, LOL.

You all have a great day and keep on searching; there is a lot to be found

Wavysteps2003

[errorfinder]

i've found your observation quite nice..material things, these coins, prices; up in down ;all quite nice; humans responding to concieved or\ preconcieved values(in regards to future prices) good for a laugh perhaps whats more valuable ie. the laugh ,or the ups and downs ,based upon perceptions of future values hee hee.real value; real beauty all in the eye of the beholder..shoved in shallow water gotten too deep..enjoyed your posting ..

[joefro]

Great post WS. I like your insight on the future value of still rolled bison nickels.
Luckily, I'm too poor to be trendy.

[coop]

Things are only as valuable as someone else will pay for it. P.T. Barnum stated it the best: "A sucker is born every second". Just hope you use judgement in your purchaes as if you have to sell your Gem, ask will you get out of it what I've put into it? Only you will know the answer...........

[coop]

OK. I just found another ERROR for Ebay. LOL How about a broken nose Lincoln? LOL

One will probably show up this week on Ebay......

[murphy]

Wow, looks like he's crying too. You might break a hundred on it! lol

[coppercoins]

This exact same subject is going around the PCGS message board right now. The discoverer of the "speared bison" nickels wrote and sent a letter in to the publishers of CW and NN stating that it doesn't matter what caused the cutsie name coins, there is and should be a market for them and the "error experts" are being snooty not accepting them - paraphrasing the author's words, of course.

My personal opinion, and that of years of experience and education in the subject, is that this sort of hyped up coin market with common mint-tolerable anomalies getting cute names and stupidly high price tags does nothing but hurt the market overall.

A large number of undereducated collectors with money to burn spend thousands and thousands of dollars collectively on these worthless coins only to find out later that their collections don't mean jack to any dealer. Most leave the market disgusted and never find out about the truly fascinating world of collecting from an educational standpoint.

The sellers of such coins are quick to turn a buck not thinking of the long term effect they are having on the hobby. Some simply uneducated, others crooks, they all hurt the hobby the same when they sell a "teardrop Lincoln" for $50 to someone who thinks it's "neat" and probably going to be worth something some day.

Truth be known, these and other coins just like them are VERY commonly skipped over and purchased at barely above face value when the deceased collector's hoard is taken to the chopping block at the coin shop. Piles of coins maticulously collected and named "rat on roof," "broken flagpole", and hundreds of other cute names are purchased at little or no premuim and often end up in the change drawer or cash deposit bag to take to the bank.

People need to heed the words of the educates and experienced in the hobby if they want their coins to have any value at all come resell time. Collect what you want, but if you're leaving it behind for profit, collect what's truly worth something, don't get eaten up in hype, store your coins correctly, and read, read, read. That's the only way to be an educated collector who assembles a valuable collection.

[coop]

You see a lot of "Machine Doubled" coins sold as doubled dies on Ebay. Sometimes when you find them you take a second look cause you noticed something different. But they are worth what it says on the back of the coin.....





Education will keep one from getting taken advantage of on Ebay.

[ddorpm]

I agree with all the comments/observations.

However, I do believe the 2004 1c doubled dies and few others, particularly the two strong 2004 1c DDR's will continue to become even more scarce as time goes by. A case in point could be compared to the very tuff to locate 1995-D 1c Die#3/FS-041. I remember when that DDO was initially published back in '96 and initial values were around the $50 to $100 range. One just recently sold on eBay grading MS-66/Red by PCGS and brought a hammer price of almost $1000. Why? --Because all the years has gone by and it has remained tuff to find. Though I'm speculating with a crystal ball -- I feel the same could happen as well with these 2004 stronger doubled dies, especially the FS-2004-801 doubled die reverse. Another one, which not too many variety collectors are aware is the 1996 1c CDDO-001 which exhibits very strong doubling on the date and WE TRUST. That DDO was reported in mid 1997 and to date, at least as far as I'm aware of, less than 5 are known. I have looked at a lot of '96 cents for almost a decade now and still have yet to come across one.

Anyway -- I advocate that you should collect what you want to collect -- with the caveat that as long as you understand the background/knowledge of what your collecting. If your not sure -- ask the questions -- or like the old saying, "Buy the book before buying the coin."

As always --- Good Hunting!

Regards,
Billy

[Bob P]

Well...There is not much more to be said than what's already been said by the 'established' folks in the hobby. A major problem for some of the under educated folks is that they see these 'curiosities' with FS numbers, and slabbed, and assume that some of the resident 'experts' agree that they are something other than what they are. It's tough trying to tell these folks that their coins are truly worth, but we need to keep trying. Chuck said it best when he talked about what the value would be some time down the road when it's time to re-sell.
Billy makes a great point too! For those of us who collect varieties, there are a great many out there that are extremely difficult to find. Yet, there are others just waiting to be discoverd.
I say we try to educate, then leave these folks on their own. Sometimes, people have to learn the hard way. We know the difference between a fad, and a collectible. No matter what...all of these expensive but worthless coins will go by the wayside. Meanwhile, our hobby will flourish because we care about it. We may lose prospective collectors because of ignorance, but we will gain more because of education.

[Gabe]

The 1996P-1DO-001 is still out there to be found. If I remember correctly, one of the board members right here on coppercoins.com found one some time back and posted about the find in this same board.

What I dont like about the FS numbers is that varieties/erros designated with these numbers are anormalities that the main stream numismatic hobby has found to be popular. For this reason, it is hard for many starting variety coin collectors distinguish between valuable and rare from what it is not. Coins with die scratches, die gauges and a lot of die damage that would be regarded as garbage if the coin community would have ignored them as they have done with all of the others.

[ddorpm]

Oh I agree the 1996 CDDO-001 is out there to be found. It's just I havn't yet. I average $25 a day in searching circulated rolls. When my desk is clear -- can go thru $50 in a day. Since 1997 -- that's a lot of 96 cents I have seen. Law of avg. has to come into play sometime -- at least I hope.

CD: I read that post you mentioned at the PCGS forums. What a bunch of BS! Think it took me an hour and a bottle of aspirins to get thru the post.

Everybody have a great 4th weekend. Maybe the 96 or something wild & crazy might just be around the corner. One never knows ...

Billy

"The very next coin you didn't look at -- is the one you should have."

[wavysteps2003]

As Billy said, they are out there to be found; all it takes is time, patience and a bit of luck. Also think of this

With the coin world rapidly evolving into something that the "old-timers" never dreamed would happen, the chance of a certain error or variety being found are very much on the increase. We are in a new age of collecting, where the 10 X, 16 X loupes are being put aside and the binocular and trinocular microscopes are being used more commonly to view coins. Lets face it, $300.00 is not that much for such a comfort and it sure gives the old eyeballs a better look at what you are seeing. That is why more will be found and new errors uncovered.

Another thing that is changing is the reporting of errors. Now, an new error or variety coin does take months or even weeks to be learned of (unless it is report to CONECA only, LOL) for the news spreads like wild fire over the "NET" of new finds in less than a weeks time.

Yes, we are in a transition period, where everthing is being done over the "NET". Buying, selling, identification, discussion, you name it, it is being done, however, one point was bought up that is very interesting. Although this site is the best thing on the "Net" for coins, reading the books on coins is the most important thing to do. Educate yourself on what is happening with these errors and varieties. There are some great books out there, some by two authors that I know are on this site (please excuse me if there are more than two, which I think there maybe), so people, read, read and when you are done, read some more.

Also, I just wanted to thank all the people who responded to this post. There are a bunch of great comments and ideas that were put forth and I am happy that I started the ball rolling.

You all have a happy and safe Independance Day and remember the troops who are fighting for this great nation.

Robert Neff
wavysteps2003