In the 2007 Annual US Mint Set I found $1(D) James Madison Dollar with a miss-rolled/slipped edge lettering (no space between “UNUM and IN). Question to all of you: should I take this coin out of the set and perhaps get it graded, or leave this in the set (and do what?). Is this a common error (though I have not seen any of these on EBay) or something that is worth some money. I would really appreciate your comments and ideas. D
i went on a US mint tour a few days ago and saw the machine that puts the edge lettering on the dollar coins. They basically put a bucket of dollar coins and they haphazardly get pressed down flat, one by one, and then go through a quickly spinning disk that prints the edge on the coin. With every bucket, there was a coin or two that flew off the press on to the ground. Tilted lettering, missed coins, I fully understand how all these errors on those coins happen, and there are so many that the errors aren't worth much.
That's the way technology works. I used to work in the post-press department of a newspaper. We ran four 40 year old stitcher/inserter machines that kept up with the press just fine. We then replaced the four with two state of the art machines. They laid off half the people. The machines were so fast that we had to wait on the press, but when they did run, the waste and errors were astronomical.
This is a known error type caused by slippage as the piece went through the edge lettering machine. Grading it would cost too much and the holder would obscure the very error that is being pointed out. I wouldn't suggest slabbing it Thanks, Bill
