Monroe Dollars Struck on Quarter Planchets

CoinWorld has recently published a story about a major new Presidential Dollar Error. The US Mint apparently struck between 70,000 and 140,000 Monroe Dollars on State Quarter planchets. Instead of using the manganese-brasss clad dollar planchet, the copper-nickel clad quarter planchets were used.

Although a large number of the error coins were struck, they were detected during the coin wrapping process by a private contractor of the Mint. Once the irregular coins were spotted, the private contractor immediately contacted the Mint. The irregular coins were subsequently collected and returned returned to the Mint to be destroyed.

The Mint released the following statement regarding the Monroe Dollar Errors:

In mid-January, the United States Mint's coin-wrapping contractor alerted the agency when it found some irregular James Monroe Presidential $1 Coins. The coins in question were immediately returned to the United States Mint. The United States Mint has performed an internal inquiry and presently has no evidence to indicate that any irregular James Monroe Presidential $1 Coins have been sent to the Nation's banks. The United States Mint expects to make an estimated 103 million James Monroe Presidential $1 Coins.

According to the above statement, none of the error coins have been released to banks, however, it is certainly possible that a few may have escaped notice. Monroe Dollars will start to be available from banks on February 14, 2008. If you are looking for the errors, they will appear silver-gray instead of golden. They will also be thinner and lighter in weight than normal dollar coins.

If any of these new errors do find their way into circulation, they will add to the interesting variety of Presidential Dollar error coins such as "missing edge lettering" and "double edge lettering" coins.