Coins circulating without ‘In God We Trust’

Coins circulating without ‘In God We Trust’

U.S. Mint admits to the goof with the new George Washington dollar

The Associated Press

Updated: 11:23 a.m. ET March 8, 2007

PHILADELPHIA
- An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were
mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including “In God We
Trust,” and are fetching around $50 apiece online.

The
properly struck dollar coins, bearing the likeness of the nation’s
first president, are inscribed along the edge with “In God We Trust,”
“E Pluribus Unum” and the year and mint mark. The flawed coins made it
past inspectors and went into circulation Feb. 15.

The U.S. Mint struck 300 million of the coins, which are golden in color and slightly larger and thicker than a quarter.

About
half were made in Philadelphia and the rest in Denver. So far the mint
has only received reports of error coins coming from Philadelphia, mint
spokeswoman Becky Bailey said.

Bailey said
it was unknown how many coins lacked the inscriptions. Ron Guth,
president of Professional Coin Grading Service, one of the world’s
largest coin authentication companies, said he believes that at least
50,000 error coins were put in circulation.

“The
first one sold for $600 before everyone knew how common they actually
were,” he said. “They’re going for around $40 to $60 on eBay now, and
they’ll probably settle in the $50 range.”

Production
of the presidential dollar entails a “new, complex, high-volume
manufacturing system” that the mint will adjust to eliminate any future
defects, the mint said in a statement.

“We
take this matter seriously. We also consider quality control a high
priority. The agency is looking into the matter to determine a possible
cause in the manufacturing process,” the statement said.

Guth
said it appeared from the roughly 50 smooth-edge dollars he has
authenticated that the problem had to do with quality control rather
than a mechanical error.

“These coins are
struck like normal coins, then they go through another machine that
adds edge lettering in another process. These apparently skipped that
process,” he said. “We’ve seen a couple of instances where the edge
lettering may be weak or indistinct, but we’re not talking about that
here.”

The
coin’s design has already spurred e-mail conspiracy theories claiming
that the religious motto was purposely omitted. That rumor may have
started because the edge lettering cannot be seen in head-on
photographs of properly struck coins.

It is
the first U.S. coin to have words stamped around the edge since the
storied 1933 $20 gold “double eagle,” among the rarest and most
valuable in the world. In 2002, a 1933 double eagle was sold for $7.59
million — the highest price ever paid for a coin.

The
Washington dollars are the first in a series of presidential coins
slated to run until 2016. After Washington, the presidents to be
honored on dollar coins this year will be John Adams, Thomas Jefferson
and James Madison.

The 215-year-old
Philadelphia mint, located downtown on Independence Mall, employs about
500 people and last year produced about 7.8 billion coins. The
overwhelming majority of error coins are caught by inspectors and
melted down.

Bailey said the striking of the Adams coin, expected to roll out in mid-May, will proceed as planned.

“We are adjusting the manufacturing process to try to eliminate the problems,” she said.

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