Melt Value vs. Collector Value Explained: What’s Really Inside the 2000 Lincoln Cent Broadstruck Out of Collar (PCGS MS-63 RD)?

Sometimes the Metal Inside Is Worth More Than the Face Value — Except When It Isn’t

I’ve spent years stacking precious metals, tracking spot prices, and calculating melt values down to the hundredth of an ounce. One rule governs everything I buy: know what the metal inside is worth before you pay a dime for anything. Sometimes the metal really is worth more than face value — that’s the entire thesis behind copper cent hoarding and junk silver accumulation. But every so often, a coin crosses my desk that flips my bullion logic completely upside down.

A recent forum thread gave me the perfect case study. A buyer won a 2000 Lincoln Cent Broadstruck Out of Collar, certified PCGS MS-63 RD, at a GreatCollections auction for roughly $60 — then watched in frustration as the USPS tracking number sat frozen at “Awaiting Item” for two straight weeks. The money had changed hands. The label was created in Irvine, California. No acceptance scan ever appeared.

USPS Awaiting Item
Shipping Label Created
IRVINE, CA 92614
Label created August 11, 11:37 AM — and silence ever since.

The buyer, living on a fixed income, admitted that “$60 is kind of a big deal.” From a pure metal standpoint, that sentence should make any bullion investor wince — because the metal inside that coin is worth a tiny fraction of one cent. Yet the market happily priced it at sixty dollars. How does that math work? Let’s walk through melt value versus collector value, because this little broadstruck cent is one of the best teaching specimens I’ve encountered in years.

Anatomy of the Coin: What “Broadstruck Out of Collar” Actually Means

The Error Explained

In my years handling mint errors, few are as visually satisfying as a broadstrike. Here’s the mechanics. When a coin is struck, the blank planchet sits inside a hardened steel ring called the retaining collar. The collar confines the metal as the dies slam together, forcing the design to form within the correct diameter and giving reeded-edge coins their vertical grooves.

Now picture that collar failing to engage — or the planchet feeding slightly off-center. With nothing to contain the outward flow, the metal spreads like pancake batter under die pressure. The result is a coin that:

• Exceeds its normal diameter — a 2000 cent should measure 19.05mm, but a broadstruck example can stretch noticeably wider
• Loses edge definition, with designs near the rim appearing stretched or “fishmouthed”
• Retains full design detail if the strike itself was strong — and that’s precisely what collectors prize

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