Expert: PAPAJACK - 11/20/2008

Question
I have a 1986 P Quarter that is missing the "I": the first half of "N" and the entire "T" are extremely light strikes on the obverse side: "IN GOD WE TRUST".
Under very good magnification, my description above is accurate. There is not any wear or sign of altering as this looks to absolutely be an error coin.

What type of value would a quarter of this description hold at perhaps an Ebay auction or similar?

Regards,

Scott L.

Answer
Hello Scott,                            

They type of defect you describe for this coin exhibits is called 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 material does not let the metal flow into it and the feature is weakly struck or missing.

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.

No coin can be exactly valued without being seen and Error-Coin collecting is a branch outside of coin collecting. There is no fixed pricing on these error coins published and each one would have to be seen to be evaluated. But there is no real market for this type of error except the novelty of it.

Since the defect is considered mechanical or operator error, and not caused by a defective die, it probably would sell for less than $3 dollars. If the error is larger on the coin or both sides it may get up to ten dollars from an error coin collector.

Here is an eBay auction that sold a nickel that has a filled die error on the mint mark. It cost at least $10 to have this coin authenticated as grade MS63 then put in a NGC holder and sold for less than $4.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180305418467

Here is a Cent with your error that has not yet sold;
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320318861756

I hope this information is helpful.

Feel free to ask another question about US Coins.

Good Luck
PapaJack