PART XI:

Enhanced Error:

Intentional and Assisted Mint Made Errors

Definition: An assisted error is one that had a helping hand from inside the Mint.  The assist could occur at any stage in the minting process and may simply involve the intentional release or smuggling-out of an accidental error.  A subcategory is the “intentional error” which is a coin both intentionally fabricated and smuggled out.  It is also possible for a mint employee to intentionally create an error as a lark, with the coin leaving in a shipment of ordinary coins.

This 1977 Canadian nickel was struck with 1978 cent dies.  Almost all coins featuring a design struck on a larger coin or planchet are intentional, since the oversized disc cannot be accommodated by the feeder tube, feeder finger, or collar.  The year 1978 was a peak year for the production of intentional errors by the Royal Canadian Mint.

1982 Panama Half Balboa–Struck over a 1978 Kennedy Half Dollar 50C. Many details of the Kennedy Half Dollar host remain visible, including the complete outline of Kennedy’s bust which is fortuitously aligned with the profile of world explorer Balboa. The peripheral legends on the reverse of the Half Dollar are also visible. The 1982 Half Balboa (KM-12b) had a mintage of 400,000 pieces and was struck at the U.S. Mint, as were most Panamanian coins through 1982. This assumed unique error combination was presumably a product of mint employee mischief, although a visitor at the mint or a supplier of planchets could also be the culprit.