Public Also Invited to New Mexico Coin Forum on Eve of Launch in Albuquerque

The Land of Enchantment’s new commemorative quarter-dollar will soon enchant the entire nation, when the New Mexico quarter is ceremonially launched into circulation on Monday, April 7th in the Capitol Rotunda in Santa Fe. United States Mint Director Ed Moy will join Governor Bill Richardson in handing out shiny New Mexico quarters to children under 18 who attend the launch. This event is free to the public.

The New Mexico quarter goes into circulation nationwide the same day. After the ceremony, the public may exchange their bills for $10 rolls of New Mexico quarters at the event. The State Capitol Building is the first place in the nation where citizens can be sure of obtaining the new quarters on the first day of circulation.

On the eve of the launch, the public and news media also are invited to a free Coin Collectors Forum from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. (MT) at the National Hispanic Cultural Center of New Mexico in Albuquerque, hosted by United States Mint Director Ed Moy. The forum on April 6, 2008, will provide an opportunity for the public to let United States Mint officials know what they’d like to see on U.S. coinage in the future.

The New Mexico quarter is the 47th coin of the United States Mint’s popular 50 State Quarters® Program, because New Mexico was the 47th state to be accepted into the Union in 1912. The coin bears the image of a Zia sun symbol over a topographical outline of the State with the inscription “Land of Enchantment.” The coin also bears the inscriptions “New Mexico” and “1912.” (more…)

No more penny for your thoughts. It’s 1.7 cents. And start thinking more of the nickel, because it’s worth a dime.

Those are the U.S. Treasury costs of minting the penny and nickel, thanks to metal prices shooting up by as much as 450 percent since 2003. With congressional lawmakers trying to right the lopsided ledger of making money, the pennies in your purse may soon be made of steel but treated to retain the copper color.

“Never before in our nation’s history has the government spent more money to mint and issue a coin than the coin’s legal tender value,” Edmund Moy, director of the United States Mint, wrote in testimony submitted at Tuesday’s hearing before the House Financial Services Committee’s panel on monetary policy. “With each new penny and nickel we issue, we also increase the national debt by almost as much as the coin is worth, and these losses are rapidly mounting.”

Read Full Story in NewsDay

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