Head or Tails? This is a Two-Tailed Coin Instead

Most times that someone says they have a two-headed coin or a coin with two reverses, it is actually just a "magician's coin," or a replica made by combining two different coins to create the false appearance of something with two obverses or two reverses. Heritage Auctions will be offering a coin that truly does have two tails sides in Sale 1329: a fascinating brockage error!

A brockage is an uncommon mint error that can occur when an already-minted coin sticks to the die and impresses onto another blank that has not yet been struck. This results in a fascinating error where one side of the coin has the normal design and the other side has a mirror image of the same design impressed upon it. The coin will have either two fronts (obverses) or two backs (reverses), with one being a mirror image of the other.

In this case, the brockage in question is of a Liberty Nickel, which was minted from 1883 to 1912. While we cannot be certain of the date because this coin shows the back side on both sides (and the date would have been on the front), we know that it would have been minted somewhere between the 1880s and 1912. This piece was struck between a reverse die and another struck Liberty nickel, leaving a mirrored, incuse impression of the reverse of another coin in the place of an obverse design. It has a big V on both sides, which is the Roman numeral representing "5 Cents."

Brockages on Liberty Nickels are infrequently seen and have rarely come up for auction. This coin also survived in Mint State condition, meaning that it was probably set aside as an oddity or curiosity right after it was minted. This would be a fabulous addition to either your error coin collection or set of Liberty Nickels.

See photos of this neat coin here:
https://coins.ha.com/itm/errors/no-date-5c-with-cents-liberty-nickel-full-brockage-obverse-ms62-pcgs-this-piece-was-struck-between-a-reverse-die-and/p/1329-22002.s