Die Crack affect on value?

[Regis44]

I'm curious about how die cracks affect the value of coins. I bought a 1900-O Morgan with a visable die crack in the upper right quadrant (see without magnifacation). I don't feel that I paid a premium for it and can not seem to find anything about vaue in relation to mint defects (other than famous ones that are seperate entries in price guides). Is it simply a matter of a personal preference between 2 like graded coins? Or, is there some down-side that I'm just not aware of (yet)?

 

....appreciate all the help and advice on this board......would not enjoy nearly as much without ya'll.

 

Regis

[Hoot]

Die cracks typically to not affect the value of a coin. They can be interesting and are indicative of the die state to some extent (although it's possible for a die to have cracked during the manufacturing process). Only when die cracks develop into something more - a split die, sunken die, or major die break - does it tend to affect value. Coins with major features that resulted from die cracks might carry a modest premium from error collectors. Such premiums are not predictable, that's why there is not a reliable price structure for such coins.

 

Coins of Morgan dollar age and earlier very often show die cracks. Dies were tough to make and coinage demands often meant that a die would be used until it literally could not be use any more. Many coins of the early 19th century show dramatic die cracks, and many of these are even collected by die state.

 

For modern coins there is mild interest in modern proofs with die cracks, but again, the value of these is difficult to forecast monetarily.

 

Hoot

[shirohniichan]

As in the case of the 1893-S dollar that recently came up for sale, rare dates with mint errors can sell for less than one with no errors. On the other hand, common dates with errors usually command a premium (major cud, huge die crack, off-center, etc.)

[Jazzy]

For modern coins there is mild interest in modern proofs with die cracks, but again, the value of these is difficult to forecast monetarily.

 

Hoot

 

Shhhhhh! Errorist might hear you.

[errorist]

I think die cracks make the coin unique because there are less of them.The mint seeks out defective dies and gets rid of them to prevent the die cracks from getting out into circulation even though many still make it out in the case of circulated coins. However, for proof coins they should be even more rare.Only a few million proof coins are struck which means there should be less die failure.About 100,000 coins are struck from proof dies before they are changed out, not the case for circulated coins about 200,000 is the norm.Therefore, it makes sense to assume less die failure will occur with proof coins.According to what Fred Weinberg told me at the Atlanta coin show the failure should occur near the end of the dies lifespan if it were going to happen at all. This makes sense to me. However, Ken Potter tells me some of the proof dies crack before even a single coin has been struck due to the annealing process.This also makes sense to me.

What the mint needs to do is inspect the dies more often to prevent these errors.If they inspected the die lets say every 5,000 coins struck then it would be reasonable to assume no more than 5,000 defective coins could ever make it out.

With todays technology it would be possible to check the die after every coin that has been struck by checking every coin that has been struck. A computer image of the die could be loaded into software and a quick scan of each coin could be compared to that software, if a crack appeared then the coins press would stop and it would be time to change the die.It would be a sad day for error collectors such as myself if this would occur.I hope they don't do this because I like the idea of collecting unique coins.

[James_OldeTowne]

Die cracks are a cool and interesting part of the coin manufacturing process, but except to a specialist studying die-states, they generally don't add to the value of a coin. If the die cracks are particularly dramatic, then they might. There are some cases where a coin may actually suffer in value slightly due to die cracks, since that generally implies the coin may be a bit weaker in strike.

 

James

[ronday]

How about pictures

[Regis44]

Here is the picture of my 1900-O with die crack

 

[James_OldeTowne]

That's an example of a common and non-dramatic die-crack - one that is not worth a significant premium. Now if, for example, that die-crack extended all the way across the entire coin, like a bisecting die-crack, then it likely would be worth some kind of premium.

 

James

[ronday]

Like this?

 

[ronday]

Actually there is a third diecrack that goes from the I through the B an E in Liberty. So this coin has three Die cracks and is relatively well struck. How would this effect value?