Bolivia 1942 50 Centavos
Struck at the Philadelphia Mint on a U.S. War Nickel Planchet
4.9g
NGC MS 65
UNIQUE
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This unique mint error coin is a Bolivia 1942 50 Centavos thought to be the only known foreign coin struck on a U.S. War Nickel planchet at the United States Mint in Philadelphia.
In 2009, Mint Error News reported this discovery in an article written by Timothy D. Ziebarth, Ph.D., who discovered this unique off-metal error coin. The article describes the fascinating path that he had to take in order to get it properly attributed by NGC.
Originally it was misattributed as part of a three-coin lot of raw Bolivian coins in the 2007 sale of the Whittier Collection. When it was first submitted to NGC, it was also misattributed, this time as struck on a Bolivia 20 Centavos planchet.
Dr. Ziebarth then spent the next year researching this mint error. He analyzed the Mint Error News article “Foreigner’s in the Mint”, which included a 69-page report on foreign coins struck by the U.S. Mint. He attended multiple coin shows, asking dealers for their opinions. David Lange, the research director for NGC, assisted him with information. Ken Krah, the Vice President of NGC at the time, accepted the submission from Dr. Ziebarth and proceeded to conduct a non-destructive Semi-Quantitative X-Ray analysis to determine the composition.
The lab results concluded that this unique mint error was indeed struck on a U.S. War Nickel planchet and NGC subsequently revised their description. Here are the details from the lab analysis:
- Copper: 57.5%
- Silver: 36.3%
- Rhodium: 5.7%
- Iron: 0.4%
This is one of the most interesting numismatic stories about how a unique mint error that was previously unknown (and misattributed twice) is now recognized as having been struck on a War Nickel planchet. It is unique and a fascinating part of numismatics.
Wartime Mint Errors from 1942-1945 are among the most coveted and sought after by mint error collectors. Obviously the most famous is the 1943 Copper Lincoln Cent that sells for $300,000 each and the 1944 Steel Lincoln Cent that sells for $50,000 to $100,000. Even a 1943 Lincoln Cent struck on a Curaçao 25 Centstukken planchet sold in a Heritage Auction for $31,200. There are only a handful of world coins struck on U.S. planchets known during this wartime period. This Bolivia 50 Centavos struck on a War Nickel planchet is not only unique on its own but is also considered to be the only known foreign coin struck on a planchet for that wartime denomination.
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