Expert: Dmitry Livshits - 9/5/2009

Question
hi there hoping you may be able to help me. i have a 2006 1£ Gibraltar coin tail side showing "ONE POUND" a picture of a skull and the words "Discovery of neanderthal skull in gibraltar 1848" centrally stuck and usual.

edge milled evenly no wording present

heads side. "Elizabeth II" on the left side. "Gibraltar 2006" right side.
center full hieght pic of Queenwith bottom of her following dotted edge. shes wearing a necklace with a central drop. (seen from side of head. shoulder visable.

dotted edge runs right around the contents on both heads and tails side.

ok the unusual bit is that the heads side is not central... i would say that its off by as much as 1.5 mm on the right hand side. its lipped at this point very slightly.

at the narrowest edge the dotts ar on the coin edge.. the distance between the dots and th coin edge is not even. a mis strike i believe.

So is this at all rare? and is it worth keeping?

thankyou for your time.

Debbie.

Answer
Hi Debbie,
Off-center strikes are one of the most common errors. Fifteen percent is not a particularly major example, some of these are as much as 98% off center, with just a tiny bit of detail on an otherwise blank planchet.
On a nice looking coin, that is in mint condition, the error could add significant value. I don't know how big the UK collectors are on errors, but for a US coin with similar characteristics I would expect 2x-3x the normal value.
It's certainly worth keeping and would be preferable to the normal and more "boring" version.
Thanks for the question! =)