Opportunity lost, my encounter with the 1955 “double shift” cent
By John H. MacMillan
Dear John:
As the Houston Coin club was
founded in 1955, the “double die” year, I thought the membership might like to
hear the true story of my encounter with a 55 double die. In 1955 I was an 11 year old boy
that had already been introduced to coin collecting by my grandfather, who gave me old
Indian pennies or severely worn large cents on our annual visit from eastern Massachusetts
to Illinois. As you know eastern Mass was one of the areas where 55 double dies were
introduced. I had my Whitman penny board, which all collectors had at the time, which I
filled with my father’s change. To get new “pennies” I would break open the
cellophane on his packs of Camel cigarettes. In 1955 a pack was 22 cents and so when a
quarter was dropped into the machine, the pack came out with 3 “pennies” inside
the cellophane. One day on breaking the pack I noticed that one of the three pennies was
“fuzzy”. This amazing error was and is obvious to any man in the street, and
requires no magnifying glass. An awesome “box office” coin if there ever was
one. My father was a leather worker who had no knowledge of coin errors, so he said I
should put one of the “perfect”
cents in my album, which I dutifully did, as all 50’s boys obeyed their “old
man”. The blazing full red 55 double die
was spent, as were nearly all of this issue, as no publicity occurred on these at first,
and interest was tepid for a couple of years after their release. Of course had I kept it and were able to preserve
it as seen then it would be worth a cool 15 grand or more. By 1960 I was far more coin
savvy, and bitterly remembered my earlier lost opportunity. In 1960 the cigarette pack was
up to 23 cents (inflation!) so on examination as usual I found two 1960 “small
date” cents, which due to widespread
publicity in the media, I saved. Unfortunately these are now worth 10 bucks, as opposed to
15 grand! Such are the hard learning experiences of a young collector. Tell any young
collectors you meet, if you find anything “weird” or different in change, no
matter how seemingly insignificant, save it!
As an added twist, I ended up moving to the Philadelphia area in 1972 and marrying
a Philly girl. She vividly remembers hurricane Diane socking Philadelphia in 1955. The
resulting cent shortage resulted in the mint officials releasing these coins, already
mixed with regular cents. Who would notice anyway?
Since my
collecting interests diverged from Lincoln cents, and
the price of the 55 double die skyrocketed , my hole in a later Whitman cent board that
included this issue remains unfilled. Someday I will fill it, but never with a MS-65 full
red!