One of the steps I perform in reviewing coins at auction sites is to verify the die pair of a coin listed. This maybe time consuming, but if it doesn’t match you have a mule that you can add to your collection. Mules are dies that are paired together that were not officially issued together.

Hint: The Royal Hawaiian Mint (RHM) has made several mules. A common mule incorporates a  die struck in official released and pairing it with a RHM advertising die.

Hint: It is most likely that these mule strikes are low in population and have been identified RHM newsletters (wait…you have not read the old RHM newsletters at their current website?) . If they contain a stated value, striking will be limited.

This is a 2M-196 obverse paired with a “Royal Hawaiian Trade Dala” reverse die.