Bolivia 1942 50 Centavos
Struck at the Philadelphia Mint
On a U.S. Wartime Nickel Planchet
4.9g - Whittier Collection
NGC MS 65
UNIQUE
$25,000
One of only two known foreign coins
struck on a U.S. Wartime Nickel Planchet!
This is a discovery coin and is unique. It is a Bolivia 1942 50 Centavos struck at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia on a U.S. Wartime Nickel planchet!
In 2009, Mint Error News reported this discovery in an article written by Timothy D. Ziebarth, Ph.D., who discovered this unique off-metal. The article describes the fascinating path that he had to take in order to get it properly attributed by NGC.
Originally it was misattributed by Heritage Auctions as part of a 3-coin lot of raw Bolivian coins in their 2007 sale of the Whittier Collection. When it was first submitted to NGC, it was also misattributed, this time as struck on a Bolivia 20 Centavos planchet.
Dr. Ziebarth then spent the next year researching this mint error. He analyzed the Mint Error News article Foreigner's In The Mint which included a 69 page report on foreign coins struck by the U.S. Mint. He attended multiple coin shows, asking dealers for their opinions. David Lange, the research director for NGC, assisted him with information. Ken Krah, the Vice President of NGC (at the time) accepted the submission from Dr. Ziebarth and proceeded to conduct a non-destructive Semi-Quantitative X-Ray analysis to determine the composition.
| The lab results concluded that this unique mint error was indeed struck on a U.S. Wartime Nickel Planchet and NGC subsequently revised their description. Copper: 57.5% Silver: 36.3% Rhodium: 5.7% Iron: 0.4% |
This is one of the most interesting numismatic stories about how a unique mint error, that was previously unknown and misattributed twice, is now recognized as being Struck on a U.S. Wartime Nickel Planchet. It is unique and a fascinating part of numismatics.
Wartime Mint Errors from 1942-1945 are among the most coveted and sought after by mint error collectors. Obviously the most famous are the 1943 copper Lincoln Cents that sell for $300,000 and the 1944 steel Lincoln Cents that sell for $50,000 to $100,000. Even a 1943 Lincoln cent struck on a Curacao 25 Centstukken planchet sold in a Heritage auction for $31,200. There are only a handful of world coins struck on U.S. planchets known during this wartime period. This Bolivia 50 Centavos struck on a U.S. Wartime Nickel Planchet is not only unique on its own, but one of only two known foreign coins struck on a U.S. Wartime Nickel Planchet.
The Mint Error News website has a 69 page report of coins struck by the U.S. Mint for foreign countries. It is the most comprehensive report available anywhere and was used to identify this unique mint error. Click here for a PDF of the 69 page report.
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Off-Metal Errors are featured in my NLG Award winning book, World's Greatest Mint Errors.
