John Whitney Walter was well-known to collectors as “Mr. 1796” because of his affinity for coins minted at the Philadelphia Mint in that year. He was also fascinated with impressive error coins, and Stack’s Bowers Galleries featured some of his magnificent errors at its August American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money auctions in Philadelphia. 

A favorite among several choice WWII-era errors was this 1943 Lincoln cent overstruck on a 1943 Winged Liberty Head dime.

It is listed as number 39 in the 2010 book 100 Greatest Error Coins, where the authors reason that the double-denomination error was the result of a coin being left in a tote bin, resulting in an already struck dime being mistakenly fed into a cent press.

Of course, collectors know that typical 1943 cents were struck on zinc-coated steel planchets to conserve copper during the war effort, so this example has added collector appeal. Another desirable trait is that all four digits of both dates are visible.

Graded Mint State 62 by Numismatic Guaranty Corp., it sold for $33,600.

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