“Feeder finger strikes” are seen infrequently in the marketplace, as noted by the cataloger of lot 4412 in our Spring 2024 Rarities Night session. Most examples of such strikes result in the breakage of the finger itself, giving the appearance of being struck on a piece of scrap metal. On the other hand, a complete feeder finger error, without breakage, is an extraordinary rarity. After a search of our online auction archives, there have been 14 individual instances where we have offered feeder finger strikes since 2003. Each of these recorded sales has been for broken pieces of the feeder finger, partially or fully impressed with their respective obverse and reverse dies. The author of World’s Greatest Mint Errors, Mike Byers, accounts for only five fully intact feeder finger error strikes. Until this offering of a George Washington Presidential dollar struck on the end of a complete feeder finger (lot 4412), we had never handled such an error.
The appearance of this exciting modern rarity is described in detail by our cataloger:
“Portions of both the obverse and reverse coin designs are discernible, the lower left of the former side and the upper right of the latter. The struck portions of the feeder finger are a mix of bright silver and deep steel-gray, with other areas of the feeder finger in bright silver where the metal has been scraped due to involvement with the coining press during creation of this error. The balance of the feeder finger is natural steel-gray with three holes on the handle, as made, and printing that reads ARROW / 1 DOL / MAY 2000 also on the handle.”
There is no telling when another similar specimen might cross the auction block, so this Spring Showcase offering is sure to pique interest from the most advanced of mint error collectors. The entire Stack’s Bowers Galleries 2024 Spring Expo Auction is available for viewing and pre-sale bidding at StacksBowers.com.
