Rarity and eye appeal come together on a Corner Clip quarter

Welcome to a new feature column in Mint Error News. My name is Greg Bennick and I am a Contributing Editor to this publication and a long-time error collector and researcher. I'll focus on an interesting coin each issue, one specifically with eye appeal and intrigue.

I truly love rare and exotic error coins. By definition of course, just about every error coin could be seen as unique in a sense because each is the result of very specific circumstances in the minting process. This is true even if the coin is an example of a more common type than other rarer pieces. That said, it's the truly spectacular coins that I love the most.

In addition, I tend to like coins that are without problems. I grew up listening to my father, who was an avid collector from the 1940's through the 1970's and a stickler for quality. He always told me "Buy quality over quantity." To this day, it's a rare coin that attracts me if it has so called problems. That said, as we will see, those rare coins certainly exist. In these instances, the rarity of the error commands one's attention even if the coin itself has issues that one would prefer didn't exist.

The coin I'm writing about today is exactly one of those pieces. I've actually seen a few excellent error coins over the years that have elements about them that led to "details" grades from third-party grading services. This particular coin is a good example of an error type that is so rare and has such great eye appeal, that the issues it has are quickly bypassed in favor of the coin itself.

This is a Corner Clip on a quarter that I've owned for about a month and a half after purchasing it for my friend John Miller from Florida. John is putting together an excellent type set of error coins featuring one each type of known mint error: die errors, planchet errors, and strike errors. Some of those types are more common, for example a clipped planchet or a lamination. Others are exceedingly rare.

This corner clip represents one of the rarer examples on that list. I truly love this coin. John and I have a playful camaraderie about our collections in that sometimes I buy something he needs for his collection, and sometimes he buys something that I would love to have in my collection. Ultimately, because together we teach the ANA Summer Seminar on error coins and varieties, it all goes to the same place. The best coins from each of our collections ends up with us in Colorado Springs to teach our class and show our students, so really everyone benefits at the end of the day.

But this corner clip is an example of one of those coins that were it not for John, I most definitely would have bought it for myself, even though it's in a holder from PCGS that says "details". This is a coin whose rarity, visual eye appeal, and beauty overall, far surpasses the scratches which appear on the coin. If one looks at the obverse, you'd see those scratches. They appear in front of, and on, Washington's face and in different areas around the periphery.

But the coin benefits from the fact that the scratches are on the reverse (as the coin is positioned in the holder), and in areas that aren't detrimental. In the case of this corner clip, the rarity of the error itself isn't impacted by the presence of these scratches. The error itself far outweighs any detractions by the scratches.

Let's take a quick look at how a corner clip is made. They come up very infrequently for sale, and oftentimes when they do, they are misattributed by the grading services or by individuals selling straight clipped or coins that resemble corner clips, but are not.

This, of course, is a genuine example. When planchet strip is rolled out at the mint and fed into the planchet making machine that we call a gang punch, which punches planchets out of that strip, it is fed into that machine with a leading edge that without adjustment would be rectangular, and exactly the width of the mouth of the machine itself. In order to more easily feed the planchet strip into the gang punch, the corners of that planchet strip are cut at angles of 120 degrees, so that the leading edge of that planchet strip can more easily feed into the gang punch without catching a corner on either side.

A corner clip occurs when a planchet is accidentally cut from the 120-degree angled corner of the planchet strip where those 120-degree angled cuts were made. As you can imagine, on any planchet strip, there are only four leading-edge, 120 degree corners that could be manufactured in the gang punch as planchets that are then struck.

The chances of this happening are infinitesimally small and in the case of this coin, examples of corner clips often don't look as dramatic and exciting as this particular piece does. This particular example has the corner clearly displayed in the middle of the holder and is as dramatic as they come. Many examples have the corner less clearly displayed, off to the side, or less dramatic.

This piece combines extreme rarity with value and visual eye appeal for a trifecta of excellence. After I write this article, I'm shipping this piece to John Miller who has paid me for it, and I will certainly be on the lookout for another example for my own collection.

I look forward to writing future articles for mint error news, and if you happen to have fantastic errors for sale, please get in touch with us here at Mint Error News, because we would love to hear from you. Thank you for reading!