Blank Monroe Dollar has Edge Lettering

A “Faceless” Monroe Presidential Dollar has been found by coin collector Garrett Reich of Michigan. This extremely rare error type, of which only one previous specimen has ever been confirmed, is a Presidential Dollar that didn’t get struck by the coin dies, leaving it without any obverse or reverse designs. Reich’s coin is a blank planchet with a very important difference from nearly other blank Presidential Dollar coins: it has Presidential Dollar edge lettering on it! Garrett found the coin in a bank box of 1,000 coins wrapped up into 40 rolls on February 13, 2008, the day before the coins officially went on sale at most banks. (Some banks are known to distribute the coins ahead of the official release date.)

Monroe Faceless Dollar is NGC Certified

Reich’s Faceless Monroe Dollar specimen has been certified by NGC as genuine, with the label reading “2008P (James Monroe) $1 / Edge Lettered Planchet / Mint Error” along with the verification number on the insert. According to Reich’s wife, Erika, the grading service messed up the label the first time around, apparently not recognizing that the particular president was a certain, known fact in this case.

Read Full Story by Susan Here

It seems that I discovered the existence of Die Variety News #11 just in time, because reader Danny Chapman dropped me a line earlier this morning to tell me that Die Variety News #12 has just come out! Die Variety News is a bimonthly variety coin magazine published free of charge in PDF format by variety coin expert Billy Crawford. If you enjoy hunting through pocket change to find rare and valuable coins, you don’t want to miss Billy’s great magazine, which is loaded with photos showing you exactly what to look for.

The lead story in Die Variety News #12 is about the recently discovered 2000-P Lincoln Memorial Cent doubled die obverse which shows an extra section of Lincoln’s beard, rotated about 40 degrees and then offset a ways onto the neck. The doubling can be seen with the naked eye, which makes this variety an important type. Billy provides several photos that will help you find your own specimen in your pocket change (or you can just take the lazy man’s way and buy it on eBay.) Read Full Story

The 2000-P “Extra Beard” Lincoln Cent doubled die variety shows hub doubling on Lincoln’s neck, along the left side of the beard. According to variety coin expert Ken Potter, who first reported the Extra Beard variety in Numismatic News, the doubling was probably the result of a misalignment of the die during the hubbing process at the Mint.

The doubling appears near the center of the coin, consistent with other doubled die varieties that have been found since the Mint began using the single-step hubbing process. What makes this coin different is that the doubling is offset, or turned to the side, which means that the Mint worker who did the hubbing may have first placed the die into the machine rotated a little bit.

When the kiss of the metal occurred, an impression of the small “extra beard” area was made before the die seated to true. Since the Mint releases very little information about its processes, a fair bit of this is educated speculation, but the explanation seems to make sense. Read Full Story

Coin World is reporting that the U.S. Mint has accidentally struck between 70,000 and 140,000 Monroe Presidential Dollars on planchets (coin blanks) intended for Statehood Quarters! The error coins were detected and intercepted by the contractor (CoinWrap Inc.,) that wraps the Presidential Dollars for the U.S. Mint. During the coin-wrapping process, CoinWrap workers discovered some “irregular” dollars among Monroe coins struck at the Philadelphia Mint facility. Of course, the contractor immediately Did The Right Thing and gathered all of the misstruck coins and returned them to the U.S. Mint, which will (presumably) destroy them.

The Monroe Presidential Dollar isn’t due to hit circulation until February 14, but banks have been able to order the coins from the Fed since the beginning of February. It will be interesting to see how many of these amazing “wrong planchet errors” actually surface, and in what parts of the country they are found. Read Full Article

As most people are aware, the U.S. Mint Web site’s Ecommerce section was down for a little more than a week recently. Mint Director Ed Moy issued an apology, which struck me as being sincere, but there were still a few loose ends to wrap up before letting this matter take its place in “old news.” In particular, people wanted to know how it was possible that a major entity like the U.S. Mint could lose its Ecommerce functionality for so long a period of time.

There was speculation that a Mint Web services subcontractor had withheld the computer code and/or order data from the Mint in retaliation for being fired by the Mint. Another rumor claimed that the whole outage was a manipulation on the Mint’s part to justify some price increases. Some rumors I heard were very bizarre conspiracy-theory type explanations that are so absurd as to not be worth repeating. Read Full Story