Other errors on Jackson $1

Andrew Jackson Presidential dollars have hardly reached circulation and already I am examining coins that show shifted edge inscriptions.

In the July 29 issue of Numismatic News I reported on a shifted-edge inscription error found on a George Washington Presidential dollar. Then in the Aug. 26 issue I added the same error type to our list for the John Adams and James Monroe dollars. Now I am getting reports on them being found on the Andrew Jackson dollars.

According to U.S. Mint spokesman, Michael White, shifted edge inscriptions or what he referred to as a “slippage problem” were a condition that was seen on the 2007 issues of the Presidential dollars caused by the absence of a dot between the mintmark and E PLURIBUS UNUM (EPU) where a wide space without any inscription occurs. According to White, a third dot was added between the Mintmark and EPU on the 2008 issues to correct this problem (these delimiter dots can also be found after EPU and TRUST on both the 2007 and 2008 issues).

Nonetheless, as I noted in my August article, I am seeing slippage errors on the 2008 issues that are of a prominence equal to those seen in 2007, despite the addition of this dot.
Don Norris of Georgia reported the first one on a Jackson dollar to Numismatic News on Aug. 25. He said, “The coin I found has a partially printed rim with rearranged text. Rather than saying, ‘. 2008 P . E PLURIBUS UNUM . IN GOD WE TRUST’, my coin says, ‘. 2008 P . E PLURIBUS UN WE TRUST’ run together. The rest of the rim is blank.” Images that he sent verified his description.

Garrett Reich of Michigan sent in another one that he reported on Aug. 28 that has a small die scrape (from the edge lettering die) that falls between the space between UNUM and IN of IN GOD WE TRUST. Most of the wide space and the delimiter dot that normally occupies this area of the edge have been missed due to the slippage. TRUST is followed by a wide area of “plain edge” caused by the tightening of the inscription.

Reich also found a Jackson dollar with double curved clips. The larger one is located at about 2 o’clock while a tiny rim clip is located at about 8:30 o’clock.

The term “Curved Clip” is actually a popular misnomer that error collectors tend to accept in describing a general class of planchet error that originates with a blank that was produced with an incomplete area of metal at its edge. The error occurs when a blank is punched from out of an area of strip that overlaps a hole (or holes) from where a blank was previously punched out. Envision using a cookie cutter to “punch” out a cookie from an area of rolled out dough that overlaps into an area from where you already cut out a cookie or two and it’s easy to understand how the “curved clip” errors occurs.

In many cases, the rim opposite a genuine clip will be flat and poorly formed. This effect is known within the hobby as the “Blakesley effect” and occurs due to the absence of pressure in that area during the upset (or rimming) process. Interestingly, this one shows the rim clip in the same area, though the Blakesley effect is quite minimal on this coin due to a strong strike.