Expert: PAPAJACK - 4/22/2007

Question
I have a  1946 lincoln wheat. The words  "In God We Trust"
appear to be struck in error. The word "In" is faintly visable with a dash going through each letter. The word "Trust" has the letters cut off vertically . Is this rare?
Have you seen this before? How much could this be worth?

Rgards,

-Will

Answer
Hello Will,         

Error coins are not my specialty. And no coin can be exactly valued without being seen. There are many causes for bad or missing lettering. Yours sounds like it was damaged in a machine, the coins are often rolled down coin shoots in mechanisms. Ii have also seen them defaced from the sealing of a coin roller/wrapper/counter in this way.
Try to get a magnifier and light source. Examine the coin around the missing feature. Tilting it in all directions.

Are there scratch marks, or is the surface different?
Is there a ghost of the missing item or scaring where it should be?
Is the rest of the coin properly struck?

Missing letters are usually caused by a filled die error.
Grease and debris commonly get caught in the recesses of the dies as they produce coins. When the dies close on the blank the portion of the die filled with this debris won’t let the metal flow into it.
These coins are common with weak or altogether missing features.

The price you may get for them over the face value depends on what an error collector may pay for the particular coin. In general "The greater the error the greater the price"

Error collecting is a branch outside of coin collecting. There is no fixed pricing on the error coin market published. The Item would have to be seen to be accurately appraised. A photograph would not really help with this. If you write back with the general location (nearest large cities) and telephone area code or codes and some zip codes in your area, I can direct you to an AMERICAN NUMISMATIC ASSOCIATION MEMBER/DEALER near there. They are ethical and trustworthy.

Or there is help at most large coin shows. There are representatives from the grading services. ANACS service even some smaller shows. They give free consultations on coins at their table. If you need to find a show or an error coin authenticator in your area just write me again.

I hope this information is helpful.

Feel free to ask another question about US Coins.

Good Luck

PapaJack