Dramatic eye appeal seen on a Bonded Pair of 2001 Cents

As I mentioned in my last column for Mint Error News, eye appeal is everything. Or close to everything. Rarity, date, condition matter too, but we will get into those in a bit. I bought a really interesting error set this last month and wanted to share it with readers here. Everyone I have shown it to in person has had an instant, "Wow!!!" response to it. There is no denying the eye appeal of this 2001 dated mated pair, a bonded set, of two Lincoln cents.

This is a set of two cent planchets that were struck together at the same time. The set is graded MS66 RB by NGC, who called it "2001 1C / Bonded Pair 5.02gr" on the insert. High grade adds to eye appeal and certainly makes the elements of the error which we will explore here, easier to see.

Let's take a look at how this set was made. Rather than just one planchet being fed in between the dies, a second was fed in as well and the two were laying on top of one another when the dies came together. Given that dies are calibrated at the mint to come together based on the thickness of the single planchet being struck, needless to say, having twice the thickness of planchets in between the dies caused a problem with pressure.

The force and impact of the strike, a blow intended for one planchet but coming together and instead finding two, bonded the two planchets together. They now exist as one bonded piece, twice the weight of a typical cent. The resulting error set has expanded far beyond the diameter one would typically expect to see for a normally struck cent due to the set being out of collar when the coins were struck.

That collar would typically restrain a single planchet as it is struck into a coin. The collar prevents planchets from turning into pancakes when they are struck. In this case, having two planchets, both sitting outside the collar that would have restrained them, resulted in the set splaying outward in all directions. Metal has to flow somewhere when it is struck, and if unrestrained by the collar, the spread that we see here is the result. The dimensions of the coin physically are 35mm by 28mm so it's bigger than a half dollar.

A little more on what makes the eye appeal of this set so striking: the spread of the copper layer and exposed zinc layer underneath. It creates a visually interesting multi-colored look as the silver-looking zinc core was exposed through the strike splaying the metal outward. It looks a bit like a halo effect around the design elements of the strike on both the obverse and reverse.

Note too, the two flanges that you can see on the obverse towards 2 o'clock and 9 o'clock appear to curl up above the surface. This is the result of the top planchet splitting from the force of the strike. These two flanges, basically the top parts of the are where the coin split, stick up like wings above the surface of the coin and in person, are an amazing addition to its already outstanding visual eye appeal. Pairs such as these can suffer from a lack of details due to the planchets being crushed between the dies. This example has a full obverse and full reverse design showing and that adds to its look overall.

Having established eye appeal, what makes this coin additionally interesting is the date. Most examples known of this error type were struck in different years. Most were made in the late 1990's, with a couple sets known dated 2000. Two, including this set, are known from 2001. While collecting a date set of such spectacular looking items would already be a tall order, finding another from 2001 would be an extreme challenge indeed.

I am a firm believer in the idea that visually dramatic error coins have additional value, both financially and in terms of educational potential. This is due to the simple fact that if people can see an error easily, and if it looks unlike what they are used to seeing, they will want to know more about it. In time this translates to higher resale value too, to a wider range of people than just specialists who focus on more minute details.

Thank you for reading about this interesting error set! I will be back in the next issue with another eye-catching error coin. You can reach me anytime at minterrors@gmail.com and @minterrors on Instagram.