Did they counterfeit Nickels? Is this real? 1 1

[CherryO]

So I saw this on a buy it now sale, I’m waiting to receive it. Y’all thinks it’s legit? I’m curious as to the date , no communication with the seller, it’s in the mail? 🤷‍♂️ anyway. 
what would the graded portion be? The entire planchette or just the struck portion? I’ll take better pictures when I receive them. 🙏🏻

[Sandon]

   The NGC Registry forum is devoted to topics related to the NGC certified coin registry. This topic would have been best posted and likely receive better attention on the "Newbie Coin Collecting Questions" forum. The Administrator will likely move it there next week.

   These nickels (Jefferson, type of 1938-2003, dates undeterminable) appear to be off-center strikes, a type of mint error. See Mint Error Coin Chronicles: Off-center Strikes | NGC (ngccoin.com).  However, large numbers of counterfeits of all coins, including mint errors, have been made overseas in recent decades, and I cannot tell from this image whether any or all of these pieces are genuine or fabricated. (Two of the pieces appear to show no portion of the design, which is suspicious.) An image showing the other side of the coins might be helpful.

   Mint errors are an advanced area of numismatics, and I wouldn't recommend buying them for any significant amount, especially if you aren't familiar with them and they haven't been authenticated by a reputable third-party grading service. (Any grade would be based on the struck portion, but since so little of these pieces were struck, the grade is mostly irrelevant.)

    "Generic" off-center Jefferson nickels list $18 each in the 2023 "Red Book". They are generally more desirable with the dates showing. How much did you pay for this group? 

[CherryO]

$65.00

[Sandon]

   It's better that you didn't spend a great amount for them. When you receive them, try to post better images of both sides of each piece so that we might get a better idea of their authenticity.

[CherryO]

@Sandon I got them and found that three are the Same the other three are just offset strikes. Do full steps matter on an error nickel? 3rd photo? Appreciate the information and feedback 🙏🏻 

[Greenstang]

Wouldn’t be considered Full Steps, there are a couple of nicks plus the right side runs off of the nickels edge.

[Sandon]

  I still would like to see separate images of each side of each piece.

  The way the six partly struck blanks seem to nearly fit together seems highly suspicious. I don't know how this could have occurred during normal mint production. 

   Whether the nickel has "full steps" on the struck portion is irrelevant on an error of this type. One would expect the portion of the coin that was struck to be well-struck, as the full amount of pressure that was intended for the entire coin was applied to the struck portion.

   Now that this topic is on the correct forum, hopefully we will get feedback from more forum participants.

   

[powermad5000]

These off center strikes are each a single piece. There seems to be an attempt by the OP to arrange these pieces to make it appear they are to form a single coin in the center. This is absolutely not possible in the striking chamber to feed what would be 4-5 planchets all at the same time into the chamber and make a single strike involving 4-5 perfectly placed planchets arranged so there is a single image in the center of all the pieces. Therefore, in my head, I am looking at each piece as an individual off center strike.

I could see whatever was causing the issue for the strikes to be off centered could have existed for some time before the press operator noticed and shut down the press to correct the problem so many specimens could have been produced with a similar effect and maybe only varying to very minor degree. Whether these were all produced in the same run or just assembled over time by the seller could only be answered by the seller and unless these all left the mint at the same time and were all kept together as a "set" so to speak, I would say the seller collected the pieces one at a time and eventually sold them as a lot.

While we still do not have photos of each coin individually and both sides of each one, I will make my comment based upon what is presented thus far. I would say these are genuine pieces. I see the image of a nickel whether clear or not in the photos. I am saying the image is distorted in some specimens. I am not saying the photos are not clear. Some of the photos could be better cropped, but they are clear and well focused. It is too difficult to say how the other specimens were produced but the one in the last photo was produced with a collar scar.

https://www.error-ref.com/?s=off+center+strike+with+collar+scar

 

As for the one in the last photo and regarding the questions, when it comes to error collectors, everything matters. The type of error, whether or not the date is visible, the condition or grade of the error coin, full steps on nickels as well as full torch on Roosy's and full bands on Mercs and full bell lines on Franklin halves, and the commonality or more preferred the error being very uncommon.

Error coins are graded on the details remaining that are NOT part of the actual error. In the case of your last nickel, it does not matter that part of the steps are missing from the strike. The graders will grade the part that is left. I do see a light hit across the steps on that one that if the grader is feeling generous might give it 5FS but I wouldn't expect that and would fully expect it to grade with no FS designation. I have many Jefferson nickel errors in my collection and very few of them have full step designations. As far as error collectors go, they would prefer specimens that have full steps as well as specimens in high grades. Also, the graders will consider the remaining flat planchet as part of the grade as well, and some of these have a remaining flat planchet that is quite nicked up.

While the $65 may be a reasonable price for this many error coins in raw state, the problem you are going to encounter is that is probably an appropriate price for these in the state they are in, raw. To see any substantial gain in premium you would have to have these graded. So six moderns at the modern tier ($19) would be $114, plus the fee to grade as mint errors ($18) for all six would be $108. $222 and that is not including the rest of the fees and shipping to and from. I would say with these missing dates and mostly only planchet left to grade that these for one wouldn't grade very high, and for two, even graded with a missing date and lower grade would not gain much premium even through grading.

 

[CherryO]

I really appreciate the feedback. 

[RWB]

Counterfeit dies work well for this kind of fraud.