2017-06-13 Tue

Coin collectors are fascinated with the unique two-headed 2000-P Jefferson 5-cent struck with two obverse dies. Mike Byers from Mike Byers Inc., in Las Vegas, Nev., currently owns the coin and is offering it with a price tag of $100,000. In 2016, Weinberg wanted to auction this MS 65 piece and therefore got it certified.

It might appear that the two-headed error is the only known example of a Jefferson 5-cent coin struck with two obverse dies. But there are other examples as well of the U.S. coins struck with two of the same dies: two undated examples were struck with two Washington quarter dollar reverse dies, and one Roosevelt dime was struck with two reverse dies.

It is somewhat difficult to tell how many of these pieces are errors as sometimes mishaps happen in the minting process. Since mishaps are not deliberate but there are speculations that the mint worker purposely did it to make it a newsworthy item. No matter what is said, they are errors and are deemed collectible by many.

U.S. Mint officials declined to provide any details on what type of coin presses were in use at the Philadelphia Mint when the two-headed 5-cent coin was produced.

The Heritage Auctions lot description from the FUN sale describes that the coin was rotated approximately 225 degrees from coin turn. Both sides are weakly struck, but exhibit a readable date and Mint mark, and a partial outline of the Jefferson bust. The unstruck areas maintain the texture of the planchet surface, post-strike contact is confined to the rim near "IN G" on one side, and the rim near "BERT" on the other side.

A partial collar error is often known as a railroad rim error but nothing happens to the rim, it is the edge of the coin that is affected. These errors occur when the collar is pushed below the surface of the lower die. Therefore, one portion of the coin is free to expand while the other half is restrained.