 |  | 


The following possible trial was offered on Ebay by Michael S. Byers. There is also additional information provided by Paul Gilkes of Coin World relating to this and to the discovery of a J2101/P2081 in private hands. For more on this, click here.
The description of the piece follows below:
This is a Martha Washington test piece struck uniface and 10% off-center on a 2.5 gram copper plated zinc planchet as used from 1982 onward. The April 10, 2000 issue of Coin World featured an article about a Martha Washington trial piece. The article revealed that the "Martha Washington/Mount Vernon dies were most recently used during metallurgical die trial testing for the Sacagawea dollar."
This die trial piece was discovered by a Brinks employee in a bag of 1999 cents. It is in gem mint state condition with red and brown toning. The obverse design of the die features a bust of Martha Washington facing right. In the right field is the inscription MARTHA WASHINGTON. Above the portrait is VIRGINIA and below the date 1759. This trial piece was struck using a die in the original 1965 format with the lettering close to the edge. It is known that the Mint gave out these dies to vendors such as IDX Inc, PMX Industries and the Olin Brass Corporation for the purpose of testing planchets.
The trial was offered on Ebay and later as lot 1972 in Ira & Larry Goldberg's 10/00 sale and lot 996 in Bowers and Merena's 1/03 sale.
It is unclear whether this piece was struck from dime or cent dies. An example struck on a cent planchet has been discovered by Michael Byers. For more on this, click here.
|
|