PHILADELPHIA-
A group of experts issued a warning about George Washington dollar coins altered to look like valuable ones that left the U.S. Mint without “In God We Trust” on their edges.
Collectors have reported finding and buying dollar coins that have had the words filed off their edges so they look like the incorrectly struck coins, according to the Professional Numismatists Guild. The ones that are truly mint errors have been selling for $50 or more.
The fakes “are just alterations that are worth a dollar,” said Fred Weinberg, a coin dealer in Encino, Calif., who is an expert on mint-error coins. “It’s an easy thing to alter.”
The U.S. Mint struck 300 million of the George Washington dollar coins, which are golden in color and slightly larger and thicker than a quarter. Correctly made coins have “In God We Trust,” “E Pluribus Unum” and the year and mint mark on the edge.
But an unknown number of error coins made it past inspectors and went into circulation starting Feb. 15.
The mint believes most were made in Philadelphia. But some have shown up in Chicago and Fort Collins, Colo., that were likely made at the mint in Denver, Mint spokeswoman Becky Bailey said.
Coin collectors have estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 of the error coins may have been made. The mint hasn’t determined how many were incorrectly struck. Bailey would only estimate that the number was in the thousands.
Investigators are talking to people who work at the Philadelphia plant, as well as looking at the configuration of the machinery there, Bailey said.
A week after the “Godless” coins were discovered, a Colorado couple reported getting a dollar coin that was blank on both flat sides, with no George Washington on the front and no Statue of Liberty on the back. No more of those errors have been found, Bailey said.
