Until VERY recently, there were never any two headed or two tailed coins known to be produced by the US mint. It was thought to be theoretically impossible because of the way the dies were made. Recently an 1859 Indian head cent with two heads has surfaced. It went up for auction in 2000 for the first time in nearly 100 years. It was simply rumored to exist prior to this exciting announcement because it appeared in a very old auction catalog. No doubt it was created as a fantasy or a pattern by a mint employee.

In August 2001, NGC certified a two tailed Washington Quarter assumed to have been minted in the late 1960s in San Francisco. It was the first time a two headed twentieth century coin has been certified. It's really an amazing and amazingly rare piece. I suspect it was made by some "midnight minter" at one of the mints in the sixties, but this is just a guess. Soon after, a dime and another quarter surfaced. None of these has, to my knowledge, been a circulation find.

There are around thirty genuine two-headed or two-tailed coins that have been authenticated by ANACS, PCGS and NGC. Most are foreign coins. There are only three known "Two Tailed" U.S. coins: two Quarters and one Dime. One of the Quarters recently sold for $80,000. There are NO authenticated two headed coins other than the aforementioned Indian head cent.

While now it is theoretically possible that your coin is a mint product, it is still extremely highly unlikely. The main reason is that the dies used have a round mounting for one side and a square one for the other. This prevents a "heads" die from being put into a "tails" hole in the machinery and vice-versa. What happened in San Francisco is still debated, but perhaps a mint operator ground down the circular die to fit into the obverse hole of the machine just prior to destroying the die. If I remember correctly, it was struck from a worn die.

The vast majority of two headed or two tailed coins are manufactured by novelty and magician's shops. The most common way of preparing them is to hollow out one coin so that it forms a shallow cup with the edge intact. Another coin is ground down so that it fits into this cup. The two sides are then glued together. This avoids the "obvious" seam on the edge of the coin, but leaves a barely noticeable seam just inside of the rim of the coin. This is the first thing to look for. If you can't see the seam, it still may be there. The next test is to measure the weight of the coin with a very sensitive scale. If it comes in at the right weight, then send it in to PCGS to get it certified. Once they certify it, congratulations, you are sitting on a small fortune.

These magician's novelties sell for between 50 cents in dealer's junk boxes to about $7 new from the novelty manufacturer. Of course higher denominations and older or rarer coins cost more.

If your coin has one date on one side, and another date on the other side, then it is definitely a magician's piece. If you have a dime on one side, and a cent on the other, and they are different metals, then it is also definitely a magician's piece. If they are the same metal on both sides, then you may have a mule. There was a very interesting mule of a Sacagawea dollar and a Statehood quarter found in 2000. If I remember correctly, it had the Washington head with the Sac eagle on the reverse. These are very valuable.

How the magician's pieces get into circulation is anyone's guess, but a surprising number do. I've had over a hundred people ask about this in the last year.

These are interesting finds. It proves that you are looking at your change and paying attention. Keep it up and you might find something else interesting!