Expert: Dan Moore - 7/31/2009

Question
Hello- I am so sorry I can't attach images for you, but  i have a 2 cent piece from 1867 with what looks like a die crack originating from the edge of the coin to the left of 'states'; along the bottom of the word 'states', then it branches upwards to the top of the coin, and also the crack branches along the words'of' and 'america', sort of connecting all the words. Then, on the other side, the word 'we' is missing altogether from the motto. So it reads: 'in god __ trust", with just an empty space on the banner in the middle, making it look unfinished.My question is: is this an error that you have heard of? Or have I discovered a rarity? I cannot find any information on it. I'm new to numismatics, so this is quite exciting. I thank you in advance for your help, and await your input! -regards.

Answer
Celestia,

First the normal part of your coin : the missing "WE" ... being the highest point of the design, the "WE" is the first thing to wear off -- the rest of the design on the coin can still look relitively strong, but the "WE" will wear off first.  From that, I would surmise that your coin is probably about grade FINE or VERY GOOD -- giving it a value of between $15 to $25

Next, the extensive die cracks ... while they are neat and interesting, they are not extremely rare.  Back then, it was very expensive to make coin dies, so they used them for as long as they could -- often until the point where they completely broke apart.  From the amount of cracking you describe, it probably wasn't long before the dies used to make your coin disintegrated too.  For the novelty of the die state, add another $5 to $10 to its value.

I hope this helps,

Dan