WASHINGTON, D.C. — There seem to be plenty of skeptical coin laundry owners when it comes to the value of the recently introduced George Washington $1 coin. However, no one’s debating the value of some of the new coins.An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, reading “In God We Trust,” and made it past inspectors and into circulation, the U.S. Mint reported.The properly struck dollars are inscribed along the edge with “In God We Trust,” “E Pluribus Unum” and the year and mint mark. They went into circulation Feb. 15.The mint struck 300 million of the coins, with about half made in Philadelphia and the rest in Denver. The mint has only received reports of error coins coming from Philadelphia.No one knows exactly how many of the coins went out without the inscriptions, but the first one sold for $600, said Ron Guth, president of Professional Coin Grading Service, a coin authentication company. The coins are selling on Ebay, and Guth expects the price range to settle in at about $50.In addition, a week after the revelation that some of coins went out without their inscriptions, a Denver couple claimed that they found one of the new coins with nothing stamped on either side. The image of George Washington on the front and the Statue of Liberty on back is just smooth, shiny metal. The Mint has not confirmed this find, but a coin authenticator has said that he is certain that the imageless coin is authentic.Has your coin laundry received any of the new George Washington dollar coins? If so, you might want to take a close look at them.
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