It has been a busy year at Sullivan Numismatics, with sales greatly increased from 2020 and 2021. We have been able to acquire many fresh coins to our inventory as well, and we have 50% more mint errors in stock than we did during much of the 2020-2021 period. The coin market had really come back to more or less "pre-covid" levels in most respects, with prices moderating on many coins that had spiked in price, and a more steady, healthy flow of mint errors is back in the market. This is good news for everyone, as it makes it more affordable for collectors, and also easier for dealers to find material to resale.

We have been listing a lot of PCGS certified, relatively inexpensive errors lately. This is an effort on our part to have more less expensive but also certified mint errors for collectors, and we have been pleased that they have been well received. Expect to see more in the month to come, in addition to the more expensive coins we offer monthly. 

Although some of of our articles go directly to this website, we have recently been publishing most of our articles in partnership with PCGS, both on their online blog as well as in the Rare Coin Market Report (we have an article on strike through errors coming in the next issue.) If you are not a subscriber, here is a link to their publication. https://www.pcgs.com/rare-coin-market-report

Our coin show list is woefully out of date, and we will be updating it soon with the coming year's schedule. For now, our next show is the FUN show, held in Orlando, Florida, which as always we expect to be a wonderful show. It is packed with dealers, collectors, and the nice winter weather in Florida makes it a great show to attend. If you are attending the show, I will be set up at table #918 "Sullivan Numismatics", Thursday-Saturday for the public. 

In the United States we have struck coins for foreign countries since 1876. Since then, the United state has struck well over 100 years of coins for foreign nations, and in the process has minted a lot of U.S. coins overstruck on other country's coins. Some are struck on just the planchet, while others are struck on a already struck coin (creating a double-denomination.) All of these are generally scarce, and there aren't any that are "common." Double-denomination coins are always scarcer as a rule than coins which are simply struck on the wrong planchet. 

The error occurs when a planchet or already struck foreign coin accidentally is struck with another nation's coinage dies. The result is a coin struck on another nation's coin planchet or a coin struck on a struck foreign coin (a double-denomination.) Some examples of these can be seen in the links below. 

While this error type has occurred in the United States, it also has occurred for other nations as well, who also strike coins for nations other than their own. A good example of this is the British Royal Mint, which is the largest producer of coinage in the World. They strike numerous coins for other countries, and as a result, they make off-metals and double-denominations on other nation's coins. Here is a link to some information about the coin's they produce for foreign countries. 

https://www.royalmint.com/corporate/circulating-coin/

So, anytime you are trying to attribute an off-metal or double-denomination which does not match up with a coin from it's nation's coinage, do some research and you may find it is in fact struck on another nation's coin or coin planchet. 

Here are some examples of U.S. coins struck on other nation's coins or planchets. 

Coin#1

PCGS 1c 1982 Lincoln Cent Struck on Philippines 5 Sentimos Scalloped Planchet

https://www.sullivannumismatics.com/coin/pcgs-1c-1982-lincoln-cent-struck-philippines-5-sentimos-scalloped-planchet-au?v=8513

Coin#2

PCGS 1c 1958 Wheat Cent Struck on Cuba 1 Centavo Double-Denomination MS63

https://www.sullivannumismatics.com/coin/pcgs-1c-1958-wheat-cent-struck-cuba-1-centavo-double-denomination-ms63?v=6778

Coin#3

NGC 1c 1919 Wheat Cent on Argentina 10c Planchet VF-20

https://www.sullivannumismatics.com/coin/ngc-1c-1919-wheat-cent-argentina-10c-planchet-vf-20?v=3301

There are numerous other examples, including U.S. coins struck on foreign gold, silver, nickel or other metals, as well as numerous examples of both off-metals and already struck foreign coins. Some collectors collect these by finding a favorite country or continent and collecting U.S. coins struck on foreign coins from those countries or continents, while others will simply try to get "one of each" of every known basic type (U.S. cent on philippine 10c; U.S. cent on Argentina 10c, etc.) 

Coins struck on other foreign coin planchets and struck coins provide and endless array of interesting and varying Mint mistakes, which leaves the opportunity to find or discover something new (such as a new U.S. on foreign) as a possibility. 

The ANA World's Fair of Money held August 16-20, 2022, in Rosemont, IL, was a resounding success both for us and for other coin dealers at the show! Sales were high, with collectors buying, and dealers having strong wholesale activity. Some dealers reported some of their strongest sales ever, and we had one of if not our best Chicago show ever (for sales.) The coin market is strong, and activity is healthy both on the retail and wholesale levels. Mint errors were for sale at the show, but generally were difficult to purchase as prices were often higher than we could pay. We will pay strong prices for any mint errors, but if a coin is "overpriced" in our opinion, we aren't going to buy it because we wont be able to offer it to our customers at a good value. 

We saw many mint errors at the show, although only purchased a relatively small number. Buying was somewhat tough. We did pick up some great coins though, and they will be showing up on our website in the coming days, and months. If you are not subscribed to our email alert, we recommend it, since subscribers get an email when we offer the fresh mint errors on our website, and coins often sell quickly when we list them.

There were a lot of customers with questions about their coins--is it authentic? What kind of mint error do I have? Is this 1943 copper cent real? Those are some of the many questions we answer at shows, which is part of the work of a coin dealer. There have been a plethora of (probably Chinese) counterfeit 1943 copper cents on the market of late, which although they are easy for a well informed collector to determine that they are fake, unfortunately many beginners are taken in by them. When in doubt, it's best to buy a coin certified by a major 3rd party grading service, or at least as an expert on the coin in question. 

It was great to see so many collectors at the show as well. There were a number of young collectors, and we also have started noticing more and more young coin dealers over the last few years--this is a good sign for the hobby, and hopefully this trend continues. Additionally, mint error coin club CONECA had a table at the show--if you are not a member of CONECA, you can join on their website, which we recommend.

We recently submitted an article to PCGS, which was published on their website. It can be viewed here using this link: https://www.pcgs.com/news/doublestruck-mint-errors

The Summer slowdown which often occurs in July really never hit us—we’ve been buying and selling a lot this month. This is largely because collectors are still actively building their error coin collections, but also because we have had a lot more mint errors to offer of late. During 2020 and 2021, most coin dealer’s inventories quickly became rather small. Shutdowns related to the Covid pandemic, such as no coin shows, dealer’s with coin shops seeing fewer coins walk in, and just less activity amongst people putting coins up for sale led us and other dealer’s to have greatly reduced inventory sizes.

Having fewer coins to offer customers will inevitably lead to fewer sales, but this has changed this year, and we now have the largest inventory (and it’s quickly growing) that we’ve had since early 2020, which is good news for us and good news for our customers. We have many major errors, as well as a quickly growing stock of less expensive errors. The coin market has largely returned to a normal, healthy level of both buying and selling.

We were set up at the FUN coin show in Orlando, Florida this month, and it was an excellent show, with a good amount of buying and selling. We sold more than we expected to in fact. Other dealers at the show dealing in “non error” coins largely reported having good to very good (and no, that’s not a comparison to the grading scale) shows.

Our next show will be the ANA World’s Fair of Money, which is being held the middle of August in Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois. It’s one of the largest coin shows of the year, and promises to be a great show once again. If you are there, look up our table “Sullivan Numismatics”, table #1529.

If you’ve not seen our articles, we now publish occasionally write articles on mint error coins for PCGS’s “Rare Coin Market Report” or for PCGS’s website. They can be viewed at: https://www.pcgs.com/news/search