Expert: Dmitry Livshits - 9/6/2009

Question
repeat question, I accidentally hit the send button before i could paste your web's email address into my Spamarrest's allowed mail.  When this is sent I'll see them again and then paste them.

Answer
Hi Diane, I've copied and pasted the answer to the first question, hopefully it will get through your firewall this time.

I must say this is a most unusual and interesting example. I should begin by saying that there are plenty of pennies and coins in general that have been altered post-mint, though this does not appear to be the case.
It's most likely that when this coin was struck, something went wrong with the top die which caused a significant drop in die pressure. This would give this exact "ghost" image without the sharp details which higher pressure would produce.
As a genuine error coin there would certainly be a significant value. This is not one of the common types of errors and is the first one like this I've personally seen from a US mint.
I've seen foreign coins like this, which generally do not have very high values due to the higher frequency of errors from certain foreign mints. The US minting process is far more strict and there are few errors, especially of this dramatic a caliber.
I would suggest sending your coin to the good people at CONECA (this is the top authority as far as errors are concerned), who will certify the coin as a genuine error (if that is indeed what it turns out to be) and write it up with the exact terminology for the specifics relating to this error. This would cost around $15 and is well worth it, in my opinion.
Thanks for the question! =)

Feel free to ask follow-up questions about your other unusual or interesting pieces.