Conder101

If it is real it is just an off-center coin, but I agree with Roger, it looks "off" and I suspect a fake error.

It could be accidental, but the odds against it being accidental would be extremely high.

And what happens when he doesn't pass along the secret code? And it then goes through several hands none of which get this code?

I did, and I can see the doubling. But the image quality isn't good enough to determine what caused the doubling.

Tey are definitely post strike damage, exactly how the damage was done we can't say. People can be very creative.

Doesn't look like a doubled die. Looks more like either machine doubling or die deterioration doubling. Images aren't close enoug or sharp enough to be sure which.

What's worse is that isn't even a filled mintmark. it's a damaged one that has taken a hit and pushed metal over the center of the mintmark.

As Roger mentioned on the PCGS board NGC is referred to as ATS, or sometimes as Sleepy Hollow. (because the NGC board has less activity)

Depends on what you mean by "sanctioned". If you mean with the official approval of the government, probably not. If you mean the government not taking any steps to put an end to it and just turning a blind eye to it, then yes.

One problem is that if they are only accessible by the owner then the owners would somehow have to be registered with the TPG and since coins get bought and sold all the time it would probably pretty quickly reach the point where the TPG wouldn't know who the owner is. If you buy a coin and the seller didn't get the ownership transferred to him by the person he bought it from, the only way you could get it transferred to you would be to send it back in to the TPG. The only TPG that has ever tried an ownership registration was ANACS back in the photocertificate days and the rarity of the transfer certificates indicates how badly that flopped. Yes every so often someone "discovers" that there are fake slabs out there. They have been making fake slabs since at least 2007. (Not including the fake PCGS rattler slabs made back in 1989.)

Nah, probably from the National Collectors Mint. Sounds like something they would put out.

The quarter mintages were affected too. In 2008 the average mintage for EACH design was in the 500 million range. In 2009 the HIGHEST mintage was the first design at 170 million. By the third design it was down to 87 million, and by the last design it was 72 million.

This is a member of a well known family of fakes. As mentioned the reverse style is wrong for 1800, and in fact is the reverse die of 1804 C-6. ALL dates of draped bust half cents can be found from this counterfeiter, with this reverse die..

Another close match were the Unc commemorative dollars. Same size, same weight, same fineness, MUCH lower mintage (actual mintages, their authorized mintages were higher) and priced at $64 as compared to $85.

Anther problem you have is not all of the Cheerios dollars had the prototype reverse. What percentage had the prototype reverse I don't know. But for the one that don't, once they are removed from the Cheerios packaging there is no way to differentiate them from any of the other 2000 P sac dollars. If they aren't savvy, they may have spent them, or they may have just tossed the package in a drawer somewhere. After all, to them it's no big deal, just a dollar. Make that 100%. The prototype reverse wasn't identified until a few years later.

The comment that it is slightly magnetic is the key to knowing that it was nickel plated.

It is a DIY in a generic shell I forget the name of the company that made the shells.

Neither one, a second plating has been put over the copper plating after it left the mint.

LIBERTY isn't allowed in China.

The more things change the more they stay the same. The Mint didn't have much enthusiasm for the Bicentennial coins either.

1994 West point double eagles? They stopped making double eagles in 1933 until they made them for one year in 2009. West point has never struck double eagles. They DID strike 1/10 oz through 1 oz AGE's in 1994 I $5, $10, $25, and $50 denominations, no double eagles ($20)

I'm not familiar with the Australian lunar coins, but if they are produced by both mints it may be possible that it isn't possible to tell the production of each mint apart. As withthe ASE's sometimes some of the bullion coins will be produced by mints other than the West Point Mint and if they aren't sent to the TPG in the unopened monster box there is no way to tell which mint they came from.

I agree, which is why the argument that "if cents are dropped and prices are rounded merchants will rip off consumers" is nonsense.

I doubt they will ever demonetize it (half cents are still monetized) But they will probably eventually drop the melting restriction. Just like they did for the silve coins once the amount in circulation dropped to a miniscule level. That's why after they are all glued down they are then coated with a plastic resin. They effectively become like those coins embedded in Lucite. One thing you might be able to do with them is sell them on eBay to other copper hoarders. I remember back when the horder of the copper cents started you used to be able to sell them for 2.5 to 3 cents each to other copper hoarders.

You may have misunderstood my post. The merchant CAN set the price on each item so that once sales tax is applied and then rounded, it will always round up two cents. But that ONLY works if customers are never allowed to purchase more than one item at a time. (You have ten items, they have to be run as ten separate transactions and the merchant makes an extra 20 cents.) But if you allow multiple items per transaction then the "set the price to always round up" no longer works. The final amount ends up being a random amount and after the tax is applied it may round up or down. So they can't set prices to "always round up".