Tuesday
March 13, 2007
Serving the
Texas Hill Country
since 1908
Gold dollar coin a collector's dream
By Greg Shrader
The Daily Times
Published March 10, 2007
Besides flipping one into a toll-booth basket or using one to pay a fee in a self-service national park facility — about the only machines that seem to be programmed to accept them — there is not much you can do with a dollar coin that you can't do better and more efficiently with a dollar bill. Except collect them.
Last month, the release of the George Washington dollar coin, the first of four to be released this year under the U.S. Mint's Presidential Coin Program, created about same excitement among the general public that the release of the Susan B. Anthony dollar in 1979 or the Sacagawea dollar did in 2000. Why bother? Well, the U.S. Mint figures about 125 million numismatists and collectors in general are participating in the mint's 50-state commemorative quarter program.
If every one of them collects all 50 quarters, they effectively take $1.562 billion out of circulation, trading their currency in for the quarters. What a deal for the treasury!
Hoping to cash in on the collectable aspect, 300 million of the Washington dollars were minted. Three more are set for release this year. If the quarter collectors move into dollars, that's another $500 million out of circulation this year. Add to the usual array of first-day-of-issue, proof and brilliant uncirculated coins offered and suddenly minting coins is a money-making proposition.
Last week collectors found another reason to examine the new dollars when it was discovered that some of the coins were released without the words "In God We Trust" appearing anywhere on the coin. I've collected a few coins in my day, so I hustled over to the bank and purchased a roll of 25 coins, hoping to find one of the miss-strikes.
Purchased in a roll, direct from the mint in Denver, one could view the obverse and reverse (numismatist speak for front and back) of the coins. I showed them to a co-worker and he remarked, "Those must be some of the bad ones, there is no "In God We Trust!" They weren't.
Sadly, the Mint saw fit to use what they call "edge-incused inscriptions" to place tiny, and I mean tiny, lettering on the edge of each coin reading "E Pluribus Unum," "In God We Trust" and the mint mark and year minted on the edge of the coins. You better have sharp eyes or a magnifying glass and hold the coin in perfect light if you expect to read it.
The Mint also will begin releasing $10 dollar face-value gold coins containing 1/2 ounces of gold and bearing the likeness of each president's spouse under its First Spouse Program. Those coins bear the words "In God We Trust" on the face, or obverse, of each coin. Thank goodness the Mint saw fit to prominently include the motto on those coins.
In 2009, we'll see a new Lincoln cent roll out of dies at the mints in commemoration of Lincoln's 200th birthday. I hope they get that design right as well.
If you are looking around town for one of the new dollars without the motto you are probably wasting your time. Apparently the miss-struck coins all came from the mint in Philadelphia and our banks receive most of their coinage from the Denver mint.
I've got 23 left and plan to put all but one back into circulation. Make that 125 million and one collectors; they got me!
Greg Shrader is editor and publisher of the Times.
Serving the Texas Hill Country since 1908
March 13, 2007
Serving the
Texas Hill Country
since 1908
Gold dollar coin a collector's dream
By Greg Shrader
The Daily Times
Published March 10, 2007
Besides flipping one into a toll-booth basket or using one to pay a fee in a self-service national park facility — about the only machines that seem to be programmed to accept them — there is not much you can do with a dollar coin that you can't do better and more efficiently with a dollar bill. Except collect them.
Last month, the release of the George Washington dollar coin, the first of four to be released this year under the U.S. Mint's Presidential Coin Program, created about same excitement among the general public that the release of the Susan B. Anthony dollar in 1979 or the Sacagawea dollar did in 2000. Why bother? Well, the U.S. Mint figures about 125 million numismatists and collectors in general are participating in the mint's 50-state commemorative quarter program.
If every one of them collects all 50 quarters, they effectively take $1.562 billion out of circulation, trading their currency in for the quarters. What a deal for the treasury!
Hoping to cash in on the collectable aspect, 300 million of the Washington dollars were minted. Three more are set for release this year. If the quarter collectors move into dollars, that's another $500 million out of circulation this year. Add to the usual array of first-day-of-issue, proof and brilliant uncirculated coins offered and suddenly minting coins is a money-making proposition.
Last week collectors found another reason to examine the new dollars when it was discovered that some of the coins were released without the words "In God We Trust" appearing anywhere on the coin. I've collected a few coins in my day, so I hustled over to the bank and purchased a roll of 25 coins, hoping to find one of the miss-strikes.
Purchased in a roll, direct from the mint in Denver, one could view the obverse and reverse (numismatist speak for front and back) of the coins. I showed them to a co-worker and he remarked, "Those must be some of the bad ones, there is no "In God We Trust!" They weren't.
Sadly, the Mint saw fit to use what they call "edge-incused inscriptions" to place tiny, and I mean tiny, lettering on the edge of each coin reading "E Pluribus Unum," "In God We Trust" and the mint mark and year minted on the edge of the coins. You better have sharp eyes or a magnifying glass and hold the coin in perfect light if you expect to read it.
The Mint also will begin releasing $10 dollar face-value gold coins containing 1/2 ounces of gold and bearing the likeness of each president's spouse under its First Spouse Program. Those coins bear the words "In God We Trust" on the face, or obverse, of each coin. Thank goodness the Mint saw fit to prominently include the motto on those coins.
In 2009, we'll see a new Lincoln cent roll out of dies at the mints in commemoration of Lincoln's 200th birthday. I hope they get that design right as well.
If you are looking around town for one of the new dollars without the motto you are probably wasting your time. Apparently the miss-struck coins all came from the mint in Philadelphia and our banks receive most of their coinage from the Denver mint.
I've got 23 left and plan to put all but one back into circulation. Make that 125 million and one collectors; they got me!
Greg Shrader is editor and publisher of the Times.
Serving the Texas Hill Country since 1908
