Mint Error Coin Chronicles: Wrong Planchet Errors

Numismatic Guaranty Company® (NGC®) is the world’s leading authority on mint errors, a popular segment of numismatics. In Mint Error Coin Chronicles, we take an in-depth look at a specific kind of mint error. This month’s topic is Wrong Planchet Errors.

Modern minting facilities can churn out billions of coins in a year, using mass-produced blank planchets that are struck with dies that impart the design of a coin. Sometimes, a planchet is used with the incorrect dies, such as this Washington Quarter that was struck on a dime planchet. Much of the design near the edge on each side was lost because of the smaller planchet, but this error coin's weight of 2.2 grams points to it being struck on a clad dime planchet, the type that was used after 1964. (This particular coin is offered in a Stack's Bowers auction in June 2024.)

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Sometimes, a Wrong Planchet Error isn't just a mix-up of two denominations from the same country. This 1943 Lincoln Cent was struck on a planchet intended for a 25 Cent piece from Curacao, a Dutch territory in the Caribbean for which the Philadelphia Mint was minting coins during World War II. So what might appear at first glance to be an example of a 1943 Steel Lincoln Cent or the famous 1943 Bronze Lincoln Cent Transitional Error is actually a Wrong Planchet Error that used Curacao's 3.6-gram planchets, which are much heavier than the 3.1-gram bronze planchets used for 1942 Lincoln Cents or the 2.7-gram steel planchets used for 1943 Lincoln Cents. (Though the Curacao coins have a slightly smaller diameter, they are struck in .640 fine silver, a metal which is much denser than bronze or steel.)

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This particular coin realized $31,200 at a Heritage Auctions sale in August 2021.

Other NGC-certified coins sold through Heritage Auctions with a Wrong Planchet Error include:

• a 1913 Type 2 Buffalo Nickel struck on a 10 Cent planchet graded NGC Mint Error MS 66 that realized $46,000 in April 2010
• an 1831 Quarter Eagle struck on a 10 Cent planchet graded NGC Mint Error G 6 that realized $46,000 in September 2008
• a 1945 Walking Liberty Half Dollar struck on a 10 Cent planchet graded NGC Mint Error MS 64 that realized $41,125 in November 2013
• an 1882 Shield Nickel struck on a Cent planchet graded NGC Mint Error NS 64 BN that realized $20,400 in July 2022
• an 1881 Indian Head Cent struck on a Three Cent Nickel planchet graded NGC Mint Error MS 64 that realized $19,550 in June 2006
• an 1866 Two Cent Piece struck on a Cent planchet graded NGC Mint Error MS 64 BN that realized $18,000 in January 2022
• a 1942 Mercury Dime struck on an Ecuador 5 Centavos planchet graded NGC Mint Error MS 62 FB that realized $11,400 in July 2023
• a Canada 2000 50 Cents struck on a US Sacagawea Dollar Planchet graded NGC Mint Error MS 64 that realized $4,320 in February 2023
• a Great Britain 10 Pence struck on a Hong Kong 2 Dollar planchet graded NGC Mint Error MS 64 that realized $960 in January 2022
• a Cuba 2014 Peso struck on a 5 Centavos planchet graded NGC Mint Error MS 62 that realized $552 in February 2024

Other Mint Error Coin Chronicles Articles:

• Broadstrikes
• Brockage
• Off-Center Strikes
• Partial Collars
• Rotated Dies Error
• Strike-through Error
• Transitional Errors