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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 11, 2007

Lettering missing on some newly minted presidential dollars

By Barbara Hagenbaugh
USA Today

Some George Washington dollar coins were struck without their edge inscriptions, including "In God We Trust."

BRANIMIR KVARTUC | Associated Press

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WASHINGTON — Some of the presidential dollar coins that entered circulation less than a month ago are missing the words "E Pluribus Unum" and "In God We Trust," because some coins apparently skipped a step in the factory.

The U.S. Mint said last week that it doesn't know how many of the coins with errors are out there. "The agency is looking into the matter to determine a possible cause in the manufacturing process," mint officials said in a statement.

The wording, along with the year and mint location, is supposed to appear on the edge of the coins in the presidential dollar program, which kicked off with the George Washington coin last month.

Edge lettering hadn't been used on a coin since 1932, forcing the mint to buy new machinery.

On a tour of the mint's sprawling factory in Philadelphia in late January, the edge-lettering machine, which processes a thousand coins a minute, stood somewhat apart from the rest of the machinery. It was physically placed past the machine that counts and bags the coins in the assembly line, forcing workers to wheel the coins past the bagger to the edge-letterer, then backward to be counted and bagged.

Coins move about the factory floor at that stage in bins that number approximately 150,000 coins each. Officials at the plant at the time said the plan was to move the machinery around to make the process more streamlined. Mint spokeswoman Becky Bailey says the mint is studying ways to improve the process.

More than 300 million of the Washington coins have been produced. It has been confirmed that coins without the edge lettering have come from the Philadelphia Mint, although there have been some unconfirmed reports of flawed coins coming from the Denver Mint as well, Bailey says.

Coins without the edge lettering have sold for several hundred dollars, according to "Coin World," a publication for collectors. But the price has dropped recently as more people estimate the number of flawed coins is in the thousands, making them less rare.

There have been reports of crooks filing down the edges on the coins to appear as errors to sell, American Numismatic Association spokesman Jay Beeton says.

The dollar-coin program features former presidents on one side in the order in which they served. Four coins will be released each year, similar to the popular state quarter program.

The state quarters also had at least one error.

As many as 50,000 flawed Wisconsin quarters entered circulation in 2004. The quarters featured what appeared to be an extra leaf on an ear of corn and in some cases sold for thousands of dollars. The government reported the quarters were the result of a machine error and not intentionally produced.