ERRORS  ERRORS  ERRORS  ERRORS  ERRORS ! ! ! !  Most  TRUE  collectors love them! I'm not referring to the thousands of virtually worthless minor errors like off center strikes, die cracks, low pressure strikes, or grease filled dies, etc. The only errors that I am referring to are those of major importance, such as legitimate overdates, overmintmarks, and major doubled die coins. I could care less about varieties of the, "Looks Like", or "Believed to Be", or "Under Extreme (100X) Magnification Appears to BE, category! Any variety that isn't EASILY VISIBLE with a loupe, really isn't a major error. This brings me to the point of this review. Why do the album makers and coin book publishers choose to acknowledge only some of the major coin errors, and totally ignore others?

     There are not so many major errors out there that you would have to pick and choose which ones need or don't need to be included. In the entire 20th Century, there are only seven VERIFIED overdate coin varieties - not including gold! There are none in cents; four in nickels (1914/3, 1914/3-S, 1918/7-D, 1943/2); two in dimes (1942/1, 1942/1-D); and only one in quarters (1918/7-S).

     When it comes to overmintmarks, allow me to explain what I mean. An overmintmark means one type of mintmark over another, such as D/S, S/D, O/S, or O/CC, or "D" or "S" or "O"over horizontal or inverted "D" or "S" or "O". Repunched mintmarks, (S/S or D/D, O/O, etc.) are not what I would call an overmintmark. This sort of error occurrs almost every year on almost every denomination of coin. Most repunched mintmarks are common, and although interesting, usually worthless! The TRUE overmintmarked coins to which I am referring are as follows:

  CENTS: 1909-S/ Horiz. S Lincoln; 1922 No"D" Strong Rev. & Weak Rev.; 1944-D/S Ty-I & II; 1946-S/D; 1951-D/S Ty-I & II;  1952-D/S Ty-I & II; and 1961 D/ Horiz. D.

 NICKELS: 1938-D/S Buffalo; 1942-D/ Horiz. D;  1949-D/S; 1954-S/D; and 1955-D/S.

 DIMES: 1901-O/Horiz. O; 1905 Micro "O"; 1945 Micro "S"; 1947-S/D; 1950S/D; and 1982 No"P".

 QUARTERS: 1916-D/ Small D Barber; 1939-D/S; 1949-D/S; 1950-D/S & S/D; and 1953-D/S.

 DOLLAR: 1900-O/CC.

There are other "Varieties" of overmintmarks that have been spoken of over the past years, however, they all fall into that category of "Looks Like" or "Believed to Be". At any rate, they can hardly be considered important.

     There are very many doubled die coins of all varieties. Only a handfull are significant enough to be taken seriously. They are as follows:

 CENTS: 1917/17 DDO; 1936/36 Ty-I & II DDO; 1941 Ty-I & II DDO; 1955/55 DDO; 1960/60-D/D Small/Large Date; *1972/72 Ty-I, II,  III, & VIII DDO; 1980/80 DDO (FS#-034); 1983/83 DDO (FS#-035); 1983 DDR; 1984 DDO (Double Ear); 1995/95 DDO; 1997 DDO (Double Ear); 1998 Wide AM Rev.; 1999 Wide AM Rev.; 2000 Wide AM Rev. (There are others that in some cases are too minor, or so few pieces were produced to reasonably be included in this list)  *There are about ten different dies that have been identified to date. In addition to Die# I, only Dies #II, III, & VIII are significant enough to have been considered as a MAJOR Doubled Die variety.

 NICKELS: 1916/16 DDO; 1935 DDR; 1937-D 3-Leg Buffalo; 1939 DDR; 1943/43 DDO (Double Eye); and the 1945 DDR.

 DIMES: 1964-D DDR;  (*1960/60 DDO, 1963 DDR, and No"S" coins are all Proof issues and as such would only qualify for inclusion in some sort of  "Specialty Album")

 QUARTERS: 1934/34 DDO; 1936/36 DDO; 1937/37 DDO; 1942/42-D DDO; 1943/43 DDO;  1943/43-S DDO, and the 2004 Wisconsin Extra Leaf (Upper/lower) Varieties. There are more than twenty-five doubled die varieties in the Washington Quarter Series. These are the only ones that I consider important enough to include in a coin album.

 HALF DOLLARS: 1946 DDR; 1964/64-D DDO; and the 1974/74-D DDO

 DOLLARS: 1901 DDR (Shifted Eagle);  and the 1934/34-D DDO.

     There are many other interesting and unusual error coin varieties known. To try to include too many small errors would only defeat the purpose of including errors at all. If you look at the "valuable errors" that are listed in books like "Red Book" or "Blue Book", almost all of these varieties have had holes cut for them in premium coin albums. In some ways, this is sort of like the old story of "The Chicken or the Egg - Which One Came First?" By being included in coin albums, many of these errors not only gained prominence because of their rarity, but also became very valuable because collectors had to obtain an example in order to complete their collections. Many collectors will simply ignore rare varieties that aren't included in coin albums. I don't think that there is any good reason for coin reference books like "Red Book" or "Blue Book" to not include ALL MAJOR VARIETIES. After all, these books are the only coin reference books that most collectors will ever own, and if they choose to arbitrarily ignore major errors, how else will collectors learn about them? They make every attempt to promote themselves as the "EVERYDAY BIBLE of COIN COLLECTING". If they expect to maintain this lofty position of preeminence, then they need to provide a product that is consistent with that position. I also feel that the major album producers should offer a line of albums with these MAJOR VARIETIES included. Only then will many of these very rare varieties be able to attain the position of value and rarity that they so richly deserve.

     If you have enjoyed this review or in any way agree with my position, I would greatly appreciate your taking just a few moments to check the  ( YES )  box located at the bottom of this page. All reference information available upon request. mintex03