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January 3, 2009
The Mule Coin Error
My last entry about the Australian 2000 $1 / 10c mule and the recent discovery of a new 20p mule in the United Kingdom made me realize I hadn't actually done an entry on the so called mule error. Put simply, a mule error coin is a coin that is minted using an obverse die and a reverse die that were never actually intended to be used on the same coin. The most well known mules in world coin collecting are the New Zealand / Bahamas 2c mule, the United States Sacagawea $1 / Washington Quarter mule, and the Australian 2000 $1 / 10c mule.
What actually makes a coin a mule is subject to some debate. The above examples I gave are undoubtedly mules. The obverse and reverse dies of these coins were never ever intended to be used together. For example, the New Zealand reverse die / Bahamas obverse 2c die are from totally different countries and were never intended to be used together in any event. The same applies for the Sac Dollar and Washington Quarter dies, and the Australian $1 and 10c dies. However, a grey area rises when dies of the same denomination are used in combinations that may be normal in some years but not in others.
There are examples in the Australian coin collecting area that are subject to heated debate. An example of this is the 1956y Penny 'mule'. In this case, the normal Perth mint reverse die was used (in error perhaps) with a Melbourne mint obverse die. This is unusual, but pennies were minted in Melbourne and Perth in 1956 so some collectors argue that this coin is not in fact a mule, just a variety of the 1956Y penny.
Another example is the 2005 $1 mob of roos coin. Some collectors believe that this coin was actually minted in error (the standard $1 coin of this year was a 50th Anniversary of WW2 dollar) by the Royal Australian Mint. They believe that to cover up this error the mint simply kept producing the 2005 $1 mob of roos coin and released millions into circulation. While most sensible collectors dont call this coin a mule, there are people (usually wanting to make money on ebay) who call the 2005 $1 mob of roos coin a mule!
Whatever makes an error coin a mule, they are interesting coins to collect. And when struck from dies of different denominations from the same country, or from completely different countries they are indeed spectacular coins to look for and own.
Posted by mnemtsas at January 3, 2009 11:28 AM
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