Filled Die Neat But Not High In Value
By Brad Hall
During the normal minting of coins certain things can happen that are beyond the control of the mint and that means that some neat errors will come out of this process. There is a matter that not all of these errors are very valuable and many of the largest dealers in error coins will not even consider them errors. The filled die error is just such an occurrence. In most cases you will find that the large dealers of error coins will not touch one of these errors as they find them to have little or no value. This has done nothing to detract the many collectors who just love these coins.
The filled die error occurs when the incised area of the die becomes full of dirt or grease. When the coin is struck the debris prevents part of the coin from being struck. So you will see a coin with parts of the detail missing and that makes for some neat errors.
This is a fairly common error to be found in the world. This is all part of the normal minting process and not something that a lot is going to be done to correct actually. It is not uncommon to find even the newest coins that roll of the line to have some details missing as the dies are used and tend to get jammed with dirt.
Some of the more dramatic versions of the filled die error can cause nearly the entire side of a coin to be blank. While the major dealers still do not think it has any value, many collectors treasure these types of coins and remain on the look out for new examples. The introduction of the state quarters has fueled this fire in recent years and some fine examples of the filled die error have come out.
As a dealer I have sold a good many coins of this type to many happy customers. All in all it boils down to the type of coin that a person likes to collect. This is the major factor in determining how much they will pay for any type of coin. There are collectors out there that limit the search to only one type of error coin and filled dies are one of the most sought after versions.
A good rule of thumb is the more dramatic the error the better the price. So with the filled die error, the more details that are missing the better the coin and the value.
About the Author
Brad Hall is the editor of http://us-mint-coins.blogspot.com the number one resource for US mint error coin information anywhere on the web.
