By Ken Potter for Numismaster

On Aug. 16, the day the new Thomas Jefferson Presidential dollars were released to the public, Chuck Chichinski of Bellefontaine, Ohio, went to his bank and obtained two rolls of the coins. Having read a report on the www.coins.about.com Web site that a doubled die reverse existed on the Adams dollar, he quickly went to work to see if any of the new Jeffersons he had obtained had a similar affliction. By the third or fourth coin in his first roll, he discovered that he had found his first Jefferson dollar doubled die reverse!

He called me to report his find on the same day and mailed two of the coins the next day for an attribution. I found that it was not only a doubled die that was similar to the Adams doubled die reverse that Chichinski had seen on the Internet on researcher Billy Crawford’s Web site but that it was almost identical to an earlier find that was reported by John Wexler recently. The only difference was that this one was even more prominent than any of the earlier listings.

This Abraded Patch on Washington Dollar Intrigues Expert

Well-known die variety expert Billy Crawford sent me these enigmatic photos. There is a patch of surface area in the field of this Washington Presidential Dollar reverse that has been abraded by a Mint technician. Mint workers abrade the coin dies when they need to clean up problems such as clash marks or other damage to the face of the dies. After the abrading, which obscures the fault, the die should be polished to bring the surface back to a smooth texture. The first photo shows a wide angle view of the area we are examining here.

By Ken Potter

Several Numismatic News readers have alerted us of Presidential dollars that are afflicted by what I call gnarled rims. I’ve had reports on these ever since the George Washington dollar was released on through to the latest Thomas Jefferson dollars. The ones we show here are two of the Philadelphia Mint John Adams dollars sent in by a reader. In each case we see that the gnarled rims are on one side or the other but not on both. We also see that the high points of the gnarling goes hand in hand with edge characters that are heavily punched into the rim of the coin shifted to one side or the other. In effect the letters are shifted so close to one side of the rim that they are causing metal displacement to be evidenced on the rim they are bordering. The information on the submitter of this coin has been misplaced and I’d like for that person to contact me so that credits can be extended.