After attend the 2007 FUN Convention, Baltimore Convention & several other major Numismatic Auctions & events. We are seeing huge price increases on major error coins. Whether the coin is Type or Modern as long as it has great Eye Appeal, it is commanding huge prices & bids.

   One error already on the move is early dated ( 1980's & before) Off Metals with FULL dates like Nickel on Cents & Cents on Dime Planchets(Not partial dates). No matter where we try to purchase these , the prices are well above $450-550 for HIGH grade certified examples (Not common dates), We see these shortly entering the $600-700 price areas. This price Surge will push Double Denominations (11c pieces)up from their current price of $1,100-1,300 to $1,600 -2,000 ranges or higher! 6 Cent Pieces ( Nickels struck on Struck Cents) will even go MUCH higher as they are MANY times Rarer than the 11c Pieces. HOW high will 6c prices go? Well struck early dated examples could hit 3k..(How many do you own?) Remember we're speaking of Certified High grades (MS 63-66) The higher the grade will reflect an even higher price. A Very important point is FULL dates with some Rim showing on Off Metals and at LEAST 1 Full date on Double Denominations ( 2 dates even better). Reason for this prediction, More collectors are coming into the hobby and are trying to put together date sets. This surge for the best is driving the market on Off Metals & Dbl Denoms. But it won't stop here either, it will spread to Many, many other better errors that are collected like Off Center Buffalo Nickels and others, whether they're Type or Modern.

   The NEW Washington Dollar is also driving the error market to new heights, it's bringing in many NEW collectors into the hobby. Speaking of Washington Dollars, have you seen all the News about the errors on them? Most are Minor and the most sought after is naturally the smooth edge (no lettering) examples. Since the release (Feb.) of the new Washington dollar, all soughts of errors have been found. Most are considered minor or just part of the normal Minting process. Then, there is the Washington dollars that have NO edge lettering at all! It appears that a good many Washington dollars totally missed this process and since this edge lettering happens AFTER the actual striking of the coin. No one knows for sure if the mintage of these errors is 1,000- 20,000 or 300,000 Washington dollars that missed this process? I guess that tally won’t be known until the Mint releases an Official statement or all bags of Washington dollars have been released from the Federal Reserves.

   Ebay has been loaded with these, actually the amount of pages in the Error section actually doubled. Granted this new error also invited error counterfeiters into grinding off the edge lettering on this new dollar. As long as there is a dollar to be made, these bottom feeders will try to steal your money one way or another, so be careful. PCGS has started to certify these errors, as I’m sure NGC will also. But if you’re not sure on what a real one or a fake one looks like? Stay with the dealers who have plenty of positive feedback on Ebay, one such dealer from California actually give a letter of Guarantee & Authentication with his Washington dollar errors.

   So you want to buy off Ebay *Look for those sellers with lots of Positive feedbacks *Remember to look for grinding marks on the edge of the coin *Weighing the coin may help, but with so little metal being removed the weights will still be close. *The internal cooper core will be uneven and more to 1 side than the other, this is normal (look at any Clad coin like a new quarter). If the copper core is “even” beware!

   Prices haven’t settled on these errors yet, they started out really high, around $1,200 and now are around the $200-250 area. $150 sounds really good if you get a letter of Authentication from the dealer or $200 if it’s certified by PCGS or NGC. The final price will be determined by the amount that is finally release into circulation. The lower the mintage the higher the price and visa versa.

   Beware of the Washington dollar blank planchets being offered, where raw or in Washington dollar Shotgun rolls (rolls rolled by private companies) these are a scam. The Washington dollar planchets and the Sacagawea planchets are EXACTLY the same, identical in diameter, weight, and color. Yet some Ebayers have been willing to pay HUGE sums of money for a Washington/Sacagawea planchet located in the End of a roll that was made by a private rolling company. Even Government released rolls can be tampered with to include one of these planchets. So what’s the scam? Sacagawea planchets regularly sell between $100-150. Some buyers have been paying $400, $800 and even $2,000.for these so called Washington planchets as singles or in rolls???? Be careful, know whom your buying from, ask questions and look at his feedback or just deal with a known error coin dealer.

   Upcoming shows we will have a table at:

   WESPNEX (Whiteplains, NY Convention Center) April 13,14 & 15th

   Baltimore, MD Convention June 29th-July 1st. We will now have a table at ALL Baltimore Conventions (3 x a year)

- Rich