Rare 1976 Dollar Errors (List & Pictures)
A dollar struck over a Bicentennial quarter brought $28,200 in January 2014, the highest completed sale supplied for these 1976 dollar errors. Estimates run from about $20 for modest varieties to $75,000 for dramatic Proof striking errors, while the special No S silver Proof belongs in a separate valuation category.
Begin with the lettering, then inspect the surfaces, outline, and overlapping pictures to work through the possibilities below.
| Area to examine | Possible finding | Estimated range |
|---|---|---|
| Letters, nose, and mintmark | Die varieties | $20–$500 |
| Surface and edge | Peeling, missing metal, or interrupted striking | $25–$8,000 |
| Wrong shape, metal, or pictures | Wrong blanks, scrap, overstrikes, or multiple strikes | $600–$75,000 |
| Thin-letter silver Proof with no S | Special documented issue | $850,000–$1.2 million in published valuations |
1. 1976 Dollar An R with an unusual foot: Peg Leg variety Error
The lower part of the R in LIBERTY provides the starting point for a Peg Leg examination. Denver Type 1 and Type 2 dollars have different reference varieties, including the Type 1 “Off at the Knees” form.
Type 1 means thick reverse lettering, while Type 2 has thinner letters. Those two ordinary designs must be separated before comparing the shape produced by a particular die.
How to Identify
Establish the reverse lettering type and confirm the D mintmark before inspecting the R. Compare its foot and lower structure with the matching Denver variety, rather than with a different design type.
Wear can erase small letter details across a coin. A convincing match needs the prescribed R shape in relation to the surrounding, still-readable letters.
What It’s Worth
$20–$300 is the supplied estimate for these Peg Leg varieties. Attribution and preservation matter more than simply finding an R that looks short.
A heavily worn candidate may not retain enough detail to justify a variety premium. No completed sale for an individually graded Peg Leg example is supplied here.
2. 1976 Dollar A second outline around D: repunched mintmark Error
A Denver Type 1 dollar can show extra portions of the D above and below its main outline. The Wexler repunched-mintmark listing describes the result of separate, slightly misaligned punches used to place the mintmark into the die.
How to Identify
Look for the correct angular remnants at both ends of the D. A flat ledge produced by movement during striking is a different effect from the surviving outline of another mintmark impression.
Fine die lines near the 19 in the dual date and below and right of the O in OF provide supporting checks. They help connect a candidate to the listed die but do not create separate errors.
What It’s Worth
$25–$350 covers the supplied estimate for an attributed example. A crisp mintmark on an unworn coin is easier to establish and generally more desirable than a partly obscured D.
The supporting lines are identification aids, not extra premiums to add to the mintmark’s value.
3. 1976 Dollar Extra detail below the nose: Runny Nose variety Error
The Runny Nose nickname directs attention to Eisenhower’s nose and the area immediately underneath it. It refers to a listed Denver Type 1 die variety, not every mark near the face.
How to Identify
Confirm the D mintmark and thick reverse lettering, then compare the entire nose-area pattern with the variety reference. The supplied description does not establish a separate production cause for each part of that pattern.
Changing the lighting helps distinguish raised detail from an incuse scratch or a patch of discoloration. A single suggestive spot is insufficient for an attribution.
What It’s Worth
$20–$400 is the estimated range for this variety. Clearly matched details and an attractive, unworn portrait support the stronger end.
No individual completed transaction accompanies the supplied estimate.
4. 1976 Dollar Repeated letters and date details: doubled die Error
Some Bicentennial dollars carry doubling made when the die itself received misaligned design impressions. The resulting extra detail repeats on coins struck from that die.
A Denver front variety involves the dates and LIBERTY, while a San Francisco Proof reverse variety involves DOLLAR, AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM, and the star at the right.
How to Identify
For the Denver example, examine the close doubling along with the fine supporting line at the lower E and the O in OF. Match it against the supplied Wexler Denver doubled-die reference.
The San Francisco reverse requires its own comparison, including the inward doubling at the right star. It cannot be authenticated from the Denver front markers.
Small date doubling is common enough on Bicentennial dollars that its presence alone does not establish a valuable variety. Flat, shelf-like displacement also needs to be separated from a doubled die.
What It’s Worth
$20–$500 is the supplied estimate across these doubled-die examples. The identified variety and the strength of its visible separation determine whether a premium is justified.
Do not apply the upper figure to every dollar with a slightly thick date.
5. 1976 Dollar A peeling patch of metal: lamination Error
A localized sheet or flake lifting from the surface points toward a lamination defect. Weakness within the metal allows a thin portion to separate, leaving a rough or uneven patch.
The supplied Denver Type 1 example has a front lamination. This local defect is different from losing an entire outer clad layer.
How to Identify
Inspect the patch boundaries for lifting, layered metal, or an area where a flake has already detached. A smooth scraped area with displaced metal around it suggests damage instead.
Leave any attached flap in place. Its relationship to the struck design can help establish when the separation occurred.
What It’s Worth
$25–$750 is the estimated range for laminations of varying size and appearance. An ANACS MS63 Denver Type 1 dollar from the Don Bonser material sold for $37 in August 2021.
That modest result belongs to a particular localized front defect. A larger, more striking example needs its own comparison.
6. 1976 Dollar A step around the edge: partial collar Error
The edge can reveal a mint error even when both faces look fairly ordinary. If only part of the blank enters the collar that restrains it, the strike can leave two edge levels instead of one even band.
How to Identify
View the full edge for a step and for the relationship between the grooved and expanded portions. The transition should fit metal spreading during the strike.
A normal dollar is about 38.1 millimeters across, but a partial collar does not require a specific percentage of expansion. A dented or filed rim alone is not the same feature.
What It’s Worth
$50–$800 is the supplied estimate. A Type 2 example graded NGC MS65 sold for $104 in March 2026.
A clearly visible step is more useful to collectors than a barely perceptible edge irregularity. No fixed tilt angle was supplied for that sale coin.
7. 1976 Dollar Curved bites or a straight missing side: clipped planchet Error
A clipped planchet begins before the design is struck, when the blank is cut with part of its intended outline missing. Bicentennial examples include single and double curved clips as well as a substantial straight clip.
How to Identify
Examine how the struck design and rim meet each missing section. Genuine blanking defects should have coherent boundaries, unlike a notch cut into a finished dollar.
For a double clip, evaluate both gaps independently. The supplied Denver Type 2 combination has curved gaps near 6 and 8 o’clock and a separate off-center strike toward 1 o’clock.
What It’s Worth
$25–$2,000 is the estimated range for these clips. A Denver Type 2 dollar with two small clips sold for $44.85 in April 2001.
The separate double-clip and off-center example brought $920 in June 2012. That amount purchased the whole combination, not two independently priced clips.
A large straight-clipped Denver example is represented in museum material. Its size alone supplies no completed auction price.
8. 1976 Dollar Material or an unusual recess on the surface: struck through Error
Foreign material between a die and the blank can interrupt the design. It may remain on the coin or fall away, leaving a depression shaped by the obstruction.
A silver San Francisco dollar retains tape to the right of the Liberty Bell. A different Type 2 example has a narrow curved recess beneath the bell, with grooves left by the interfering object.
How to Identify
Follow the normal design into the interrupted area and inspect the boundaries of any attached material. Do not pull at retained tape or try to clear a recess.
Other supplied examples involve an unidentified substance on a silver S reverse and unidentified material affecting both sides of a Type 1 dollar. Their marks should not automatically be described as tape.
What It’s Worth
$50–$2,500 is the estimated range for the described struck-through errors. The size, clarity, and survival of the foreign object can make a substantial difference.
No completed sale is supplied for the retained-tape dollar. A striking photograph does not establish its exact position within that range.
9. 1976 Dollar One copper-colored face: missing clad layer Error
An entire outer layer can be absent from a copper-nickel clad dollar, exposing the copper core. The supplied Type 2 example has a copper-colored front and a normal-looking reverse.
How to Identify
Check both faces and the edge to determine whether a whole surface layer is missing. A small peeling patch belongs under lamination, while surface staining does not by itself show missing metal.
Composition and weight help test the diagnosis. The normal copper-nickel clad standard is 22.68 grams, but the actual weight of this sale example was not supplied.
What It’s Worth
$500–$3,000 is the estimated range for a missing clad layer. The front-layer-missing Type 2 dollar graded PCGS MS64 sold for $1,057.50 in January 2017.
That result refers to one structurally incomplete clad coin, not a normally layered dollar with brown toning.
10. 1976 Dollar The picture runs off the blank: off-center strike Error
A blank that is not centered between the dies receives only part of the intended design. The remaining unstruck area and the missing picture need to agree with the direction of the offset.
How to Identify
A Type 2 example struck about 5% toward the top loses upper portions of LIBERTY and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Inspect both faces before deciding whether a slightly uneven rim represents a true off-center strike.
The supplied material also includes a separate Type 1 dollar struck about 75% off center. Its Bicentennial reverse design can help identify the issue when the date is not retained.
What It’s Worth
$150–$5,000 is the estimated range. The approximately 5% off-center Type 2 coin graded ANACS MS63 sold for $224.25 in May 2003.
No price is supplied for the 75% example. The amount of surviving design and the ability to identify the coin influence the appeal of a dramatic offset.
11. 1976 Dollar A round hollow crosses the bell: indent from another blank Error
A quarter-sized blank trapped between the dollar blank and the reverse die made a broad depression across the lower-left Liberty Bell and much of ONE DOLLAR. The finished piece still has the body of a dollar.
The interfering blank was absent from the auction. Its contact is recorded by the recessed outline and the design it prevented from forming.
How to Identify
Trace the curved boundary and check where the bell and denomination weaken or disappear. An unused blank need not leave a second coin design inside the hollow.
Compare the front, reverse, and edge as a whole, including the weak border away from the area opposite the indent. A dollar struck on a quarter blank would instead be smaller and lighter throughout.
What It’s Worth
$800–$5,000 is the supplied estimate for substantial indents of this kind. The PCGS MS64 Type 2 example sold for $1,997.50 in January 2017, following a reported $3,220 sale in 2008.
Those are two transactions involving the example, not values for separate parts of the impression.
12. 1976 Dollar Backward lettering sinks into the coin: brockage Error
A brockage records contact with an already struck coin during another strike. The intervening coin presses a recessed, mirror-image version of its design into the new piece.
Supplied examples include a small Philadelphia impression, a Type 2 front brockage with a partial collar, and a Denver Type 1 reverse brockage struck about 5% off center.
How to Identify
Try reading the recessed letters in a mirrored photograph. They should resolve into recognizable portions of the opposite design, rather than an arbitrary collection of dents.
The Denver combination has a weak date and lost tops of upper letters, while the Type 2 combination has an edge step. Keep those separate identification routes attached to their respective examples.
Coins pressed together after minting can also leave reversed marks. Authentication depends on the surrounding strike and metal flow as well as the mirrored picture.
What It’s Worth
$500–$8,000 is the estimated range for these brockages. Large, readable transfers generally attract more interest than a small, indistinct impression.
The supplied descriptions do not provide a completed sale for these individual coins. Any additional off-center or partial-collar feature remains part of one combined valuation.
13. 1976 Dollar An irregular piece carries dollar designs: struck scrap Error
A bow-tie-shaped scrap piece in the ANA museum’s Berry Collection received Bicentennial dollar impressions at Philadelphia. It was struck twice and has a uniface front that lacks the normal front design.
This is not an ordinary circular dollar with a small defect at its rim. The irregular metal itself was the object that entered the press.
How to Identify
Study the full outline and both faces to relate the impressions to the scrap’s shape. A small cropped photograph cannot establish whether a finished dollar was cut afterward.
Use the museum example’s doubled striking and uniface appearance as its own description. Normal dollar diameter and weight are not requirements for a piece of scrap.
What It’s Worth
$5,000–$30,000 is a comparison-based estimate for dramatic struck scrap of this sort. It is not a reported auction result for the museum’s bow-tie piece.
Recognizable designs, the unusual shape, and evidence of more than one strike would all enter an individual assessment.
14. 1976 Dollar The size or metal is wrong: wrong-planchet strike Error
A dollar design can land on a blank intended for another denomination or composition. Supplied cases include a Denver Type 2 dollar on a 40% silver blank and dollars on half-dollar, quarter, and dime blanks.
Silver is normal for the appropriate San Francisco collector issue. A silver-colored S dollar therefore needs no wrong-planchet explanation simply because it differs from a circulating clad dollar.
How to Identify
Confirm composition for the reported Denver Type 2 silver error and check how much design a smaller blank could accommodate. If the mintmark area is absent, the missing letter cannot establish Philadelphia manufacture.
Useful normal blank standards are 24.59 grams for the silver dollar, 11.34 grams for the clad half dollar, 5.67 grams for the clad quarter, and 2.27 grams for the clad dime. These are comparison figures, not measured weights for every error listed here.
A separate twice-struck example with only reverse design on a dime blank was reported at 2.3 grams. Surviving pictures from an already finished host coin would instead place a piece in the overstrike category.
What It’s Worth
$4,000–$35,000 encompasses the supplied wrong-planchet estimates. Within that span, Denver silver examples are estimated at $5,000–$35,000, half-dollar blanks at $5,000–$15,000, and quarter or dime blanks at $4,000–$20,000.
A quarter-blank example sold for $8,050 in September 2011, and a reverse-only dime-blank example brought $8,050 in March 2007. The matching amounts refer to different coins.
A half-dollar-blank example was offered at $11,500 in 2013. That asking price is not a completed sale.
15. 1976 Dollar Another denomination remains visible: overstrike Error
An overstrike starts with a coin that already has a design, rather than an unused blank. A Bicentennial quarter beneath a dollar impression can retain Washington and the drummer as evidence of its earlier identity.
Other supplied examples involve a finished 1976 cent with the dollar strike about 50% off center and a Denver dollar over a 1975-D nickel.
How to Identify
Find recognizable portions of the host design that fit beneath the dollar impression. The shared Bicentennial date on a quarter and dollar is not enough by itself; the portraits and reverse pictures provide stronger evidence.
Keep host-coin identity separate from strike displacement. The roughly 50% offset belongs to the cent example and does not describe every overstrike.
What It’s Worth
$5,000–$40,000 is the supplied estimate for these overstrikes. The dollar over a Bicentennial quarter sold for $28,200 in January 2014 and $27,025 in August 2014.
Those two sales involve the same coin. The Denver dollar over a 1975-D nickel was offered at $35,000, which is an asking price rather than another recorded transaction.
16. 1976 Dollar Shifted or reversed overlapping designs: multiple strike Error
A coin can receive another strike after moving, turning over, or failing to leave the press. Such movement separates an error from the repeated, properly aligned blows normally used to make a Proof.
A Type 2 flipover example shows portrait traces beside and below the reverse bell. On its front, the bell and moon appear below the chin, with motto traces below the L in LIBERTY.
How to Identify
Map the extra pictures to determine whether the coin shifted in place or turned over. Two pictures from opposite faces on the same side support the flipover explanation.
Separate Denver examples include a second strike about 90% off center and a weak first strike followed by a stronger one. A different Type 2 coin has a second strike about 95% off center plus a struck-through area near 5:30 on the front.
The silver S triple-struck broadstrike and the S Type 1 copper-nickel clad Proof with an off-center second strike are also different coins. Their metal, finish, and number of impressions must not be combined into one description.
What It’s Worth
$600–$8,000 is the supplied estimate for ordinary multiple-strike examples, while dramatic Proof errors have a separate $25,000–$75,000 comparison range. The Type 2 flipover brought $2,530 in 2004.
The Denver example with a roughly 90% off-center second strike sold for $990 in August 2021. The silver S triple-struck broadstrike realized $4,465 in April 2017.
No completed sale for the described off-center clad Proof is supplied. Its comparison range should not be presented as an auction result.
17. 1976 Dollar No S on a silver Proof: special documented issue Error
The documented No S silver Proof combines Type 2 thin reverse lettering, Proof manufacture, silver composition, and an absent S mintmark. PCGS treats this as a special coin rather than an ordinary mint error.
Millions of normal Philadelphia dollars have no mintmark. Their blank mintmark area does not connect them to this exceptional issue.
How to Identify
Require the whole combination of design type, finish, metal, certification, and documented history. A shiny surface alone does not establish Proof manufacture.
The mintmark area also needs examination for alteration. The supplied evidence does not justify explaining every candidate as a coin whose S was accidentally omitted.
What It’s Worth
$850,000–$1.2 million is the span of supplied published valuations, not a completed auction range. The supplied PCGS silver Bicentennial Proof guide reference lists $1 million for PR66.
That exceptional guide figure belongs to the documented special issue. It does not raise the value of ordinary no-mintmark circulation dollars.
Conclusion
A useful examination starts by separating the normal lettering types, mintmarks, and metals. From there, inspect the exact letters, surface interruptions, edge shape, and any extra designs before choosing an error category.
The best price comparison matches the whole coin, including combined errors and condition. Keep auction results, dealer asking prices, and guide estimates distinct, especially for the special No S silver Proof.
