ON ERROR COLLECTING

Last week's edition of The E-Sylum highlighted David Lisot's 2005 video of the scintillating meeting led by Sid Kass and Fred Weinberg about the history and progress of error-coin collecting in this country. Entitled: Early Days of Error Coin Collecting, the video was very enjoyable and informative. What a wonderful video archive David Lisot built up at ANA conventions and other meetings before his untimely passing.

The evolution of error-coin collecting has had such a dramatic impact on the hobby. No one has been more important for popularizing that endeavor than Bill Fivaz and the late J.D. Stanton, thanks to their wonderful series of Cherry Pickers' Guides. It was good to see Mr. Fivaz in that video, then obviously in his vigorous early 70s, bantering with others in the audience.

As the E-Sylum recently reported, Mr. Fivaz this year observed his 90th birthday, surrounded by dozens of family members and friends. That was where he reportedly thanked everyone for helping him celebrate the 50th anniversary of my 40th birthday. Delightful.

I was fascinated to hear Mr. Weinberg report on his purchase in the mid-1960s of that trove of around 2000 error coins for $60,000. He said that fully two-thirds of them went relatively quickly for a total of between $2 million and $4 million, when the collection was broken up and the coins were sold separately.

Discussion on the 2004-D Wisconsin High-Leaf and Low-Leaf Quarters
The videoed meeting discussed the unexpected production a year earlier of the two unauthorized 2004-D Wisconsin quarters, the so-called High-Leaf and Low-Leaf varieties. Participants in the meeting speculated on the ability of the United States Mint to get to the bottom of the creation and production of those two unauthorized varieties.

Some years ago, I bought PCGS-graded MS 65 examples of both varieties. I wondered whether the US Department of the Treasury ever got to the bottom of that mystery, so I phoned Rick Snow of Eagle Eye Rare Coins in Tucson, Arizona, from whom I bought my two quarters. Rick has been offering the coins on his web site for some time, and he told me the government has never been able to figure out who was behind the creation and production of those coins.

Rick added that there is a 2004-D Roosevelt dime variety which is also suspected of having been created by the same anonymous Denver Mint employee(s). That coin is illustrated in the Sixth Edition, Volume II, of the Cherry Pickers' Guide at the top of page 117. The Guide notes: A circular image overlaps the outer rim of the back of Roosevelt's ear. It then states: An employee of the Denver Mint may have added the circular image to the die deliberately. Its size and shape are similar to those of images known on the reverse of the two 2004-D Wisconsin quarters (High Leaf and Low Leaf varieties).

Thanks, as always, for the good reporting.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
CLUB CELEBRATES BILL FIVAZ 90TH BIRTHDAY (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n08a13.html)
VIDEO: EARLY DAYS OF THE ERROR COIN HOBBY (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n18a08.html)

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