Spectacular 1862 Error Cent to be Auctioned!

Dallas, Texas: "This is one of the most stunning and spectacular errors that we have seen or handled," said Greg Rohan, President of Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, "a remarkable illustration of what can go wrong during coining operations."

"Although coinage presses in 1862 did not operate with nearly the same speed as modern day presses, they could still strike quite a large number of coins every minute," Rohan continued. "A die cap is created when a blank planchet literally sticks to the die through multiple press cycles. The successive cycle of the press, over a short period, probably seconds rather than minutes, caused the planchet to expand slightly, and the obverse detail to become just a little sharper in definition. As the metal expanded, it also became more brittle and eventually split into a fan shape with eight individual tabs. Clearly, the copper-nickel - in this case 12% nickel and 88% copper - was quite hard and certainly contributed to the appearance that is now so coveted."

"The obverse is exceptionally sharp, especially at the center, with every feather tip and every diamond fully and completely defined. The legend and date are drawn to the border, with the border design extensively drawn out onto the individual tabs. This Superb Gem is highly lustrous with wonderful tan color accented by light blue color in the fields. This is a uniface example with no design visible on the reverse, possibly the result of two planchets fed into the press at the same time, but more likely the repeated blows of the die cap that caused the reverse design to expand and eventually disappear entirely. A spectacular piece for the connoisseur who appreciates the combination of impressive quality and outrageous character."

Heritage Auction Galleries will offer the 1862 1C Indian Cent--Obverse Die Cap--MS67 NGC in their upcoming Signature Auction, August 13-14, 2006 in Denver, Colorado.

1862 1C Indian Cent--Obverse Die Cap--MS67 NGC

Images, descriptions, and prices realized from all of Heritage's previous auctions are available in the Permanent Auction Archives at the Heritage website, www.HA.com.

To reserve your copy of a catalog for any upcoming Heritage auction, please contact Nicole Jewell, c/o Heritage Auction Galleries, 3500 Maple Avenue, 17th Floor, Dallas, TX 75219, or call 1-800-872-6467, ext. 272.