Small show yields find

A Double Collar Cud is difficult to find. Though it is worth just $100, it took the author seven or eight years to find one on a 1974 Kennedy half dollar.

For years I have been seeking out a larger size coin with Double Collar Cuds. And I finally found it at the Suburban Detroit Area Coin Show.

It all started seven or eight years ago when a box arrived at my door from the now defunct Global Mint of Nevada. I was expecting nothing from them at the time so my interest was piqued and I had to tear the box open immediately. Inside was a Collar Die that was made to form the edges on reeded 39mm coins and medals. It was shattered in three pieces with the smallest pieced being a part of a Y-shaped break that did not extend all the way to the inside diameter.

The raised metal cuds appear at the 4 o’clock position, top, and the 11 o’clock position, below.

Thus I was holding a collar that had broken all the way from the outer diameter to the inside, a collar that had to have struck at least one or a few medals or coins with Double Collar Cuds.

However my concern was why they had sent it to me. I called and learned that one of the co-owners, Sean Sarr, knew I’d like to have it so he sent it to me rather than scrapping it.

Now all I needed was an actual coin or medal with Double Collar Cuds in order to add it to my collection of broken and otherwise defective dies and other minting tools where I have an actual coin with the same type of defect. I searched for years and could only find Kennedy half dollars with single Collar Cuds.

Finally I found one with Double Collar Cuds for which I was able to negotiate a fair price and take photos at this show.

Double Collar Cuds are formed when the collar die breaks, allowing metal to flow outwards.

Collar Cuds are of the same cause as regular Cuds found on a coin’s obverse or reverse (and sometimes both sides). To qualify as a Cud a piece of die must break away starting at the rim and running inward into the field or design. With a Collar Cud the collar breaks somewhere along its inside diameter resulting in raised areas where reeding should occur.

In terms of value, the Collar Cud finds little respect beyond perhaps $40 on a Kennedy half and perhaps $100 for a Double Collar Cud. While the Double Collar Cuds appear to be far more rare than other commonly collected errors, it lacks the pizzazz of Off Centers, Brockages and many other more obvious errors. So this is a case where you can obtain rarity at a fraction of the cost of far more common error types.

Ken Potter can be reached by email at KPotter256@aol.com. An educational image gallery may be viewed on his website at www.koinpro.com.