What do you think, RPD?

Steve · Member

Yep, it's from Colombia...

Steve · Member

Oh, in case you missed it, here's one that's really cool!

http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=245181

smed · Senior Member

Neato... definitely looks like a mispunched second 6...

Robert · Senior Member

I'm not an expert but it does look like you say.

I've heard a theory on similiar oddly-placed features on Indian Head Cent dies. Basically, the theory is that someone at the mint was testing the hardness of the die by using a punch on a flat part of the die. If the die had been hardened, a mere tap on a punch w/ a hammer shouldn't leave much of a mark. If the die hadn't been hardened then you might have what your coin shows. And instead of re-processing the die the mint may have used it as-is. Again, this is just a theory I've heard.

Personally I find it hard to believe putting an extra digit there is a mistake. The mint workers knew how to properly punch the date into the die. A skilled worker trying to put the date in the right spot wouldn't be that far off. Someone was likely either testing the die, fooling around, or doing something else they shouldn't have been doing.

If it's on a die, there should be more coins w/that extra digit. Is that coin listed somewhere or is that a first find?

smed · Senior Member

Sorry Robert, I can't buy that theory. People make mistakes (and mistakes make people) (sorry, couldn't resist that). Just because somebody is trained and experiences doesn't mean they won't make a mistake. After all, what's a major purpose of this website?

To me, that's like whenever a good coin is found in circulation and somebody says it MUST have been stolen because there's no other way that coin could be in circulation. Well that's a bunch of poo. There are countless ways, but somebody always ASSuMEs the coin(s) have been stolen.

Sure, it could have happened that way, but not necessarily.

I don't see it listed in Krause.

Steve · Member

The Krause does say that there are many date varieties for the type. Colombia does seem to be prone to varieties. Out of the three Colombian coins I've found in this bulk lot, two are repunched dates (or would it be a misplaced date?) and one is possibly an RPM. I was thinking about emailing Ken Potter to see if he'd seen it before, but I don't know if he'll respond to emails.

Robert · Senior Member

True, nobody's prefect (ha ha) but think about this: Why are there several IHCs with "misplaced" dates around 1900? The majority seem to be put in the denticles. Just the tops of one or two numbers are usually visible. Was someone's aim that bad? Why aren't we seeing more IHC errors like yours (with and extra digit near the other digits)? Wouldn't that me more likely if the whole thing was an accident?

I asked a similar question about finding a rare coin in circulation... so far with your opinion the poll results are 50-50.

http://www.coppercoins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=283

Steve · Member

I'm going with an unsteady hand for Colombia. Here's yet another that I pulled out this morning that looks to be a triple punched 9 on a 1959 5 Centavos.

and a 1976 10 Centavos...

I did find three Colombian coins that appeared to be normal, though.

smed · Senior Member

Cherrypicker's has many MPD/RPD's in the IHC series. Most date from 1883 on. Why? Mintage. The more coins minted, the more hubs/dies made, the more chance of error.

I gotta go check all my Columbian coins... LOL

GarryN · Expert Member

Very nice photos. If those were US coins the prices would be thru the roof! The bid board near me always has a selection of foreign coins. I have not seen anything like that so far.

coppercoins · Site Admin

The pic in the first post does indeed appear to be an RPD, not any sort of doubled die I know of. It's very neat, I do know that.

With regard to the Belgian Franc - God knows how many of those I probably spent. I never searched my change over there for die varieties...just somehow "lucked" into a 1988 2 mark doubled die reverse from Germany...

The story (in very brief) - I was waiting for my wife to pick up her check at work and was sitting in the car. We were on our way to a coin show about 70 miles away that day, and I happened to have my loupe with me. I scooped up the change out of her console and proceeded to go through it....and there it was - REALLY nice class 1 doubled die! I showed it around that day and sold it the next week for $60. Face value of the coin was about $1.25, which is what I paid for it.

Gabe · Senior Member

Yep, Colombia has a very mest up die making system. I have myself pulled a couple of Colombian varieties and here is my favorite....

Bob P · Site Admin

Very nice coin Gabe. Makes me want to start collecting Columbian!

Gabe · Senior Member

Since we are already in the topic... here is one of a couple of varieties I found once in a batch of world coins. This is a Yugoslavian coins which shows tripling on the observe and reverse. Very strange, this picture is of the tripling on the reverse, the tripling on the observe is very hard to capture with a picture.

coppercoins · Site Admin

Definitely a tripled die going on there - class 2. Nice one!

I have a Greek coin around that has quadrupling that looks similar.