Expert: Ronald Fern - 1/21/2010

Question
I have a US dime that is completely missing the face side of the coin.  It has the ridges on the edge of it and it appears to be the right thickness.  It almost looks like the coin was layered and the face side detached and fell off. Do you know anything about coins like this.  I can't give you a date on it but I can say that I have had it since the early 90s.

Answer
Hi Brian:

It's possible you may have a dime struck by a capped die, or a split after striking error (if the obverse is copper rather than clad). When asking a question, especially with errors, always provide as much information about your piece as possible. This helps to pinpoint what you may have. Attaching a photo would also help. I'll answer your question as best I can, If you want to ask a follow up question by providing more information, I'll revise my answer or add to it.

What you should do to help evaluate your coin: (1) Compare the diameter and thickness to a "normal" dime; (2) Weigh your coin to a clad dime struck after 1965 made; (3) View coin under magnification to try and determine if your piece may be ground or filed down.

The capped die strike happens when a previously struck dime sticks to the upper (hammer) die, and blank planchets are fed into the die chamber and struck. The result is a front side with a blurred image, and the back a normal coin. The image will continue to be blurred until the capped die coin thins out or is removed by the mint operator. A split planchet happens when there is a flaw in the bonding of the blank planchet material. The metals can be contaminated and fail to bond properly. When they are made into planchets and struck, the flaws can cause the planchets to peel or split apart. This type of error should weigh about 15% to 20% less than a normal dime.

As far as value, that of course depends on the type of error and condition of the coin. (1) A ground or filed (altered) coin would have minimal value, maybe $1 to an interested collector; (2) A coin struck by a capped die, up to $25-$65, depending on condition, and (3) A split after striking coin (will weigh less) with copper core showing $35-$50, depending on condition . You may want to check Ebay listings under US coins in the error category to see what these errors are going for. You may also want to check out these links on error coin values:
http://www.coinsite.com/html/USErrorPrices.asp
http://www.minterrornews.com/priceguide.html

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Thank You and Good Luck in your collecting.