How do Error Coins Find their Way into the Market?

[Mr. Smith Guesser]

I can only think of two ways that coins with significant errors find their way into the market:

 

1. They're accidentally distributed by the Mint, or

2. They're stolen by Mint employees.

 

And by "significant" errors, I mean things like bonded errors.

 

Photo credit: MintErrorNews.com

 

Is there any other way significant errors can find their way into the market that I'm overlooking?

 

If coins with significant errors are only either accidentally distributed or stolen, it would seem that how they find their way into the market is a topic that the U.S. Mint would want to avoid. Either way might make the Mint look bad; they're either not paying attention to what they're distributing or have hired unscrupulous employees.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Note:

I understand that on a percentage basis, the Mint produces relatively very few coins with errors. But people, in general, want to focus on what government agencies do wrong, and not what they do right. What they do wrong makes for a more interesting headline and appeals to the "us vs. them" mentality. But logic rarely prevails in the media; emotion reigns supreme. So from a PR standpoint, the Mint probably wouldn't want to publicly admit they make mistakes, even if it's blatantly obvious.

[cpm9ball]

Is it really the Mint that is allowing these errors to get past inspection? Aren't bulk coins shipped in containers? If that is the case, then it could be another party allowing the errors to get into the hands of the public.

 

Chris

[KeyMan64]

This thread on THIS IS AN ERROR offered some possible insight. However, another possible answer is that they were smuggled out by a mint employee or administrator.

[Mr. Smith Guesser]

This thread on THIS IS AN ERROR offered some possible insight. However, another possible answer is that they were smuggled out by a mint employee or administrator.

Yeah, that is a pretty cool gnarled mess of an error. So I guess another explanation could be that as Condor101 said in that thread:

condemned to the scrap heap and was shipped out with the rest of the scrap to the firms that purchased the scarp metal. Someone there recovered it from the scrap. The same way the waffled coins get out today. So if it was "stolen" from anyone it was probably the metal recyclers and not the mint. It might have even bee purchased from the recyclers as scrap metal.

 

There's no doubt that some of these errors are stolen. Every once in a while someone at one of the mint's gets caught doing it. I'd like to know what percentage of significant errors get accidentally distributed or tossed out with the scrap and what percentage get stolen.

[asdfgh]

I am not sure about scrap from the mint, but scrap from other government agencies go thru a set of rules that the bidder of the scrap must agree to. For instance you can bid on aircraft as scrap but must scrap the craft on the base and no piece may be bigger than 3 inches. Therefore you must bring a schreader and scrap on site to be inspected by them. Likewise if you bid on ammo shells you must guarantee that they will be melted and not reprocessed. I can imagine that the waffle coins and things like the planchet bow ties are stolen from the recyler. The recycler would not put in jeparody their business buy selling this scrap. (sorry about the misspelled words)

[RWB]

The waffle pieces were sold legitimately. The mint did not require evidence of melting and considered only the defective coin's use as money not as a curiosity. At the Denver ANA Convention (remember when the ANA met in a different city across the country each year?) there was a large promotional display of waffle coins. The US Mint folks had to pass through that to get to their booth.

 

A couple of years ago, several mint employees were indicted for stealing errors (such has the multi-coin pileup) and selling them to dealers.

 

Fred Weinberg will have the details in him memory bank.

[Brol]

I wonder if mint employee can swallow error coin while working and then after few days "produce" it at home?

Too bad if he "produce" that error at work, it means he must swallow it one more time..

[michael]

How do significant bonding Error cent Coins Find their Way into the Market?

 

"helping hands"

[WoodenJefferson]

I vaguely remember US Mint workers dropping error coins into the crankcase of forklifts and when the lifts went for maintenance, they were recovered out of the oil pan.

[RWB]

..Also, some of the error coins wear glasses so they can see better to find the emergency exits....