Wire rim dime error attracts attention

Nothing makes me happier than creating a front page that generates reader feedback.

The Nov. 6 issue of Numismatic News did just that.

It shows a silver reverse proof 2018-S silver dime.

The dime likely was struck with much higher than normal pressure.

It also was probably slightly tilted out of the planchet’s normal position when the dies came together.

The result was an extremely high wire rim that at one end of the photograph looks like a triangle.

Proofs are supposed to have wire rims.

They are struck twice with pressure that is higher than a regular strike.

Some proof coins I have held have edges that look like you can cut your finger on them.

However, the standard proof rim is uniformly high all around the circumference of the coin.

On the error dime, some portions of the rim are much higher than others.

This particular front-page coin was so extreme it falls into the realm of error.

A reader responded to the story by sending me a couple of images of another dime with a wire rim that she hoped was an error.

She wrote, “I found 2018-S Proof Dime with small High Wire Rim in my set, if you need the picture please send me your email.”

Since she already had sent me two photos of enlarged rim areas of the coin, I wasn’t quite sure what she had left to send me.

The height of the rim was uniform, so it was not an error of the kind that appeared on the front page.

I asked by email if the dime was from a clad set or a silver set.

I could not tell from the photos.

All I could see was the high points were frosted, so it was not a reverse proof.

What she sent me was another photo, but no reply to my question.

This one was of the proof set box it came in.

It was the regular clad proof set.

Was she in a hurry and just sent me a photo she already had?

Did she even know that some proofs are made of copper-nickel clad and others silver?

She might be a newcomer to the hobby.

If you happened to buy your first proof set at a coin dealer’s shop, or across a table at a VFW Hall coin show, you might not know yet that there are multiple kinds of proofs struck each year.

Acquiring this set might be the first step in a hobby with so much more fun and interesting things to learn.

Whatever level of interest she has in coins, I am glad she saw the front-page story in Numismatic News.

She will find there is so much more to come.

Best of all, questions are always welcome.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017. He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."