Hope and Heartbreak Story of Error Coins | News | Rare Coin Wholesalers, a S.L.Contursi Company

Numismatic News
By David C. Harper
Monday, August 4, 2008

News that Steve Contursi has purchased a 1943-S copper cent previously unknown to exist by the general hobby is riveting.

The fact that it came with some background papers makes it all the more interesting.   Within them are the reasons errors can be so compelling and so frustrating.

Errors by their very nature require pioneers to find and identify them.   Pioneers by definition are ahead of the crowd, even alone.

When Admiral Robert E. Peary claimed to be the first person to reach the North Pole in 1909 he was met with skepticism.   He might never have reached the North Pole.   There is no way he could come back to civilization and ask, "Would someone please check where I placed my flag?"

That's the nature of errors.   Skepticism is the first reaction because most errors either aren't errors or are of no consequence.   It takes a little knowledge to sort things out.   Many coins are accidentally damaged or deliberately defaced.   These are not errors yet they are often mistaken for them.

Other errors, many die cracks for example, have little value or interest on coins struck for circulation but they are of great interest on proofs because the Mint's quality control is supposed to prevent them from reaching collectors.

So this week we see four letters.   We see the lucky collector writing the Mint.   He has found a copper 1943-S cent.

The response: The Mint did not make copper cents in 1943.   This, of course, was true as far as it went.

Our intrepid collector showed the coin to the Mint director in 1948 and was told it was probably genuine.   He got a letter from the curator of the Smithsonian Institution's numismatic division nine years later saying the coin was genuine.

Ah, but the hobby was not ready.   A prominent dealer, Abe Kosoff, was contacted and he had just had his fingers burned by the withdrawal of a purported cent of the same year struck in copper.

A dealer is in the business to make money.   He is not likely to put his fingers near a flame that has already burned him once and the letter of response reflects his dilemma perfectly.   He needed to earn a living by selling coins.   He did not wish to undertake a process that he expected could easily have a similarly negative outcome.

So the rare error coin sat in the same hands for 64 years. That is unusual.   Most of us would have given up long since, or unknowing heirs would simply have deposited it in a bank somewhere.

So the story gives us hope.   But it does not alter the basic fact that errors can be heartbreaking for most people.   (Especially for those who buy cleverly named inexpensive errors online at high prices).   This is true even at present when we have been given many more opportunities to collect legitimately scarce and valuable errors, such as plain edge Presidential dollars.

Finders of truly long-term collectible errors may be fortunate as the finders of plain edge dollars were to get quick confirmation from others, but then again, they may not.

As is the case with the owner of this 1943-S cent, self-education and patience are often the keys to ultimate success.