Couple Find a Faceless Dollar Coin

Brutuskend

Lifer
Apr 2, 2001
26,558
4
0
Couple Find a Faceless Dollar Coin
By CHASE SQUIRES, Associated Press Writer
42 minutes ago

DENVER - Mary and Ray Smith can't make heads or tails of a new presidential dollar coin they found last week. It doesn't have either. A week after the revelation that some of the coins slipped out of the U.S. mint without "In God We Trust" stamped on the edge, the Smiths said Tuesday they found one with nothing stamped on either flat side.

It does have "In God We Trust" on the edge. What's missing is the image of George Washington on the front and the Statue of Liberty on the back. Instead, the Smith's coin is just smooth, shiny, golden metal.

"We're just so excited," Mary Smith told The Associated Press. "I'm just dumbfounded that we actually found something significant."

U.S. Mint spokesman Michael White said officials had not confirmed the Smiths' find. But Ron Guth, a coin authenticator with Professional Coin Grading Service of Newport Beach, Calif., said he is certain the coin is authentic.

"It's really pretty rare," Guth said. "It somehow slipped through several steps and inspections."

It could be worth thousands of dollars, maybe more, he said. The value will depend on how many similar misprints are found, but the Smiths' will always be worth more because it will be the first one to be independently authenitcated, Guth said.

The first "Godless" coins, which went into circulation Feb. 15, initially sold for $600 but one sold for $255 on eBay Tuesday. It's not certain how many were made.

Douglas Mudd, curator at the American Numismatic Association's museum in Colorado Springs, said Guth is one of the best known-coin authenticators in the country.

The Smiths' coin bears a "D," meaning it was produced by the Denver Mint. The "Godless" coins were all believed to have come from the Philadelphia Mint.

The Smiths, who live in Fort Collins about 50 miles north of Denver, are coin collectors who bought two rolls of the presidential dollars on March 7 after hearing about the earlier mistake.

Mary Smith said she thought they might find a "Godless" dollar of their own.

"I opened the first roll, and I looked at all the edges, and they all had printing, so I just set them down and left the stack there," she said.

On Thursday, she pocketed the top two dollars to use during the day, and her husband noticed the next one in the stack looked odd.

He checked, and it was blank on both sides.

"I could tell right away something was strange," Ray Smith said. "I knew what we had immediately."

Guth still has the coin, but the Smiths say that when they get it back, they'll store it in a vault at their bank for now.

"I'm not sure what we'll do with it," Ray Smith said. "I think we'll hold on to it for a while."

The U.S. Mint struck 300 million of the coins, about half in Philadelphia and half in Denver.

LINK
 

CrackRabbit

Lifer
Mar 30, 2001
16,642
62
91
Originally posted by: her209
Can the Secret Service come aknockin' and take it back?

I don't think so, but the treasury will destroy it if they ever got a hold of it.
 

LtPage1

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2004
6,311
2
0
Wait, what? Is this a limited-run collectible, or a replacement for the Sacagawea dollar? ...how did I not hear about this?
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Washington's eyes look really creepy on that coin

Wait, what? Is this a limited-run collectible, or a replacement for the Sacagawea dollar? ...how did I not hear about this?
I was wondering the same...
 

alyssa

Senior member
Feb 27, 2007
238
0
0
Yeah, I just read that earlier...Kinda weird.

I wonder how many more of these they'll find?
 

moshquerade

No Lifer
Nov 1, 2001
61,504
12
56
A lot of them got into circulation without "In God We Trust" on the edge.

Makes you wonder if it was done on purpose.
 

Azndude51

Platinum Member
Sep 26, 2004
2,842
4
81
Originally posted by: mugs
Washington's eyes look really creepy on that coin

Wait, what? Is this a limited-run collectible, or a replacement for the Sacagawea dollar? ...how did I not hear about this?
I was wondering the same...

I didn't hear about it either, but it looks like it's being produced at the same time as the Sacagawea according to Wikipedia

I don't even know why the still bother with dollar coins, I haven't seen one of these things used in ages.
 

Wreckem

Diamond Member
Sep 23, 2006
9,511
1,075
126
The new dollar coins will phase out the Sacagawea. There is I think a 10 year run of the presidential quarters, because after this year, only two presidents a year will come out.

They stole my idea, I swear i came up with this in the mid 1990s when I was avidly into coin collecting.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Originally posted by: Azndude51
Originally posted by: mugs
Washington's eyes look really creepy on that coin

Wait, what? Is this a limited-run collectible, or a replacement for the Sacagawea dollar? ...how did I not hear about this?
I was wondering the same...

I didn't hear about it either, but it looks like it's being produced at the same time as the Sacagawea according to Wikipedia

I don't even know why the still bother with dollar coins, I haven't seen one of these things used in ages.

I think the government would LOVE it if people started using dollar coins, because then they could stop reprinting dollar bills every year (average lifespan of a dollar bill is about 18 months, a coin has an indefinite lifetime).

The problem is, as long as there are still dollar bills, people won't use dollar coins. You spend them, and then the cashier never gives them out as change because they assume nobody wants them.

But who uses cash anymore anyway? ;)
 

Kaervak

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2001
8,460
2
81
Originally posted by: moshquerade
A lot of them got into circulation without "In God We Trust" on the edge.

Makes you wonder if it was done on purpose.

Eh, 50,000 out of 300 million isn't a lot. .00016%
 

iamaelephant

Diamond Member
Jul 25, 2004
3,816
1
81
Wait a minute.... American money says "In God We Trust"? I thought you guys were a secular state....
 

Jawo

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,125
0
0
Cool....it'll be worth a bundle since those rarely get out.

"In God We Trust" has been on all our currency over the past few century or so. Despite all the masonic symbols on it, it is claimed that no FreeMasons were on the design team.....even though half of the founding fathers were.
 

Linflas

Lifer
Jan 30, 2001
15,395
78
91
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: Azndude51
Originally posted by: mugs
Washington's eyes look really creepy on that coin

Wait, what? Is this a limited-run collectible, or a replacement for the Sacagawea dollar? ...how did I not hear about this?
I was wondering the same...

I didn't hear about it either, but it looks like it's being produced at the same time as the Sacagawea according to Wikipedia

I don't even know why the still bother with dollar coins, I haven't seen one of these things used in ages.

I think the government would LOVE it if people started using dollar coins, because then they could stop reprinting dollar bills every year (average lifespan of a dollar bill is about 18 months, a coin has an indefinite lifetime).

The problem is, as long as there are still dollar bills, people won't use dollar coins. You spend them, and then the cashier never gives them out as change because they assume nobody wants them.

But who uses cash anymore anyway? ;)

If they want people to use dollar coins they need to follow the Canadian example and make them tactilely different than other coins so people can differentiate them from other coins in their pocket without having to examine them. They then have to set a date certain to stop making $1.00 bills and stick to it.
 

kedlav

Senior member
Aug 2, 2006
632
0
0
Given the failures of so many of the dollar coin series, they printed 300M of these? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
 

moshquerade

No Lifer
Nov 1, 2001
61,504
12
56
Originally posted by: Kaervak
Originally posted by: moshquerade
A lot of them got into circulation without "In God We Trust" on the edge.

Makes you wonder if it was done on purpose.

Eh, 50,000 out of 300 million isn't a lot. .00016%
sure it is when it comes to an error. most times there will be just a few that have errors and it sends collector's scurrying like jackrabbits to find them.

 

moshquerade

No Lifer
Nov 1, 2001
61,504
12
56
Originally posted by: iamaelephant
Wait a minute.... American money says "In God We Trust"? I thought you guys were a secular state....
here's the thing. it's history, and it's what our forefathers had in mind when they settled this lovely parcel of land, and created their own currency.

let's just erase all history because the godless people are complaining louder and louder each year.
 

MmmSkyscraper

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2004
9,472
1
76
Originally posted by: moshquerade
here's the thing. it's history, and it's what our forefathers had in mind when they settled this lovely parcel of land, and created their own currency.

let's just erase all history because the godless people are complaining louder and louder each year.

LOL.