One lot offering a pair of rare modern mint errors brought more than $20,000 at a recent online-only sale by the Texas-based Heritage Auctions.
Described by auctioneers as an “intriguing and extremely scarce pair of mated die cap errors” for Canada’s 1985 $100 proof gold “National Parks” coin, they brought $18,000 US (nearly $21,700 Cdn.) as Lot 31067. The errors resulted “from a rare occurrence in which both dies were capped at the same time and struck one another, imparting an impression of each coin onto the other,” auctioneers explained in the lot description.
“Given the inclusion of two separate planchets in the error process, mated die caps are exceedingly difficult to locate, yet both examples resulting from this process are kept together here, preserved in a pristine Mint State condition and nearly undisturbed by handling or contact.”
PCGS certified the second coin (shown) as Proof-67.
The first coin, the reverse die cap, is certified as Proof-69 while the second coin, its mated brockage, is in Proof-67.
Auctioneers said the first coin “saw repeated striking, which gradually expanded the planchet well beyond its initial intended size, leaving its diameter around 34 mm – much larger than the approximately 27-mm size of the intended format.”
It was the first mated pair Heritage auctioneers had seen for the 1985 proof gold issue.