Market Analysis: Errors add depth to Jefferson 5¢ collection

Market Analysis: Errors add depth to Jefferson 5¢ collection

By Steve Roach , Coin World,Published: Sep 7, 2021, 9 AM

George Byers started collecting in the 1950s, and Stack’s sold his collection of half dollars in 2006.

The collector’s Jefferson 5-cent set was ranked #2 All-Time Finest in the category “Jefferson Nickels FS with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes (1938–1964)” in the PCGS Registry. The Byers “Buckeye” Collection received the Best of the PCGS Registry award in various categories from 2014 to 2018, and he rounded out his set by including some major Mint errors on the type.

One such error was a 1944-P Jefferson 5-cent piece struck on a zinc-coated cent planchet intended for Lincoln cents in 1943. Byers’ coin was graded Extremely Fine 40 by PCGS and was likely plucked from circulation by a sharp-eyed collector who noted that it was a bit smaller than a regular issue.

Stack’s Bowers Galleries added in the catalog of its August auction of the Byers 5-cent coin collection, “The coin offered here is actually a ‘double’ wrong planchet error, involving a planchet from both the wrong year and the wrong denomination.”