Expert: Jim Lawniczak - 9/15/2007

Question
I have a question. I have a nickel that both sides are heads on. One side is heads 1989. The other side is heads 1999. I was just wondering if this is rare and if it may be worth anything?

Answer
The most likely explanation of a two headed (or two tailed) coin is that it is a magician's novelty piece, made for use in magic tricks.  Those pieces are made by hollowing out one coin and putting 1/2 of the other coin in the hollowed out part.  You can see that this happened by finding a seam on the edge, where the two halves were fused together.  As a novelty item, you can buy these for a couple of dollars, but if this is a magician's piece, there really is no resale market for it.  If it is a mint "error" (and it would probably have to be an intentional one), it would be quite valuable, but it seems very unlikely that dies from ten years apart would be available at the same time.  Jim Lawniczak