Wisconsin Extra Leaf Done Intentionally...

I don't think it will affect the value at all.

It would imply a "mystery person" now who hood-winked the gub-ment. But that may already be part of the price since few ever believed the accident story in the first place.

I guess the reason I was asking is because the news changed my mind. I was really thinking of buying both the high leaf and low leaf, but now that it has been confirmed it was done intentionally, I want nothing to do with them. I was just wondering if it changed anyone elses mind as well....

Tim

So how about the Sac mules? Those were intentional and yet are selling for thousands.

Thought I would stir the pot a little.

Michael

Since you mentioned the Sacs, It made me think of other errors. I was always a little suspicious about all those coins in proof sets without mint marks. There are a lot of strange coins coming out of the mint.

Here is the artical I was refering to:


Collector advances new theory on Wisconsin 'extra leaf' coins

Metallurgist says die marks made pre-final hardening

By Coin World

Dies that produced "extra leaf " 2004-D Wisconsin quarter dollars were intentionally so marked with a tool before they received final hardening to make them ready for the coining presses, researcher Chris Pilliod has concluded.
The finding contradicts an investigative report by the Treasury Department's Office of Inspector General, which stated in January 2006 that the scarce varieties "were most likely produced as a result of machine or product deficiencies, not as a result of an intentional act." Mint police had alleged criminal mischief.
Pilliod, a senior metallurgist with Carpenter Technology Corp., Reading, Pa., makers of specialty alloys including tool steel, examined both "High Leaf " and "Low Leaf " variants under a scanning electron microscope and conducted tests with canceled, government-sold State Quarter dies.
He said he had not seen examples of the coins until last summer at the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money in Denver. Tucson, Ariz., dealer Richard Snow, a fellow Indian Head cent specialist and also an early promoter of the quarter variants (many of which showed up in the Tucson area), loaned him some.
The "extra leaves" are curved, raised lines added in the area of the leftmost leaf on the ear of corn. On the "Extra Leaf High" variant, a single curve rises from the wheel of cheese and touches the design leaf above. On the "Extra Leaf Low" variant, a double set of lines overlies the base of the design leaf and extends left and downward toward the cheese.
Suspecting that the "extra leaf " lines were hand-engraved additions to each die, Pilliod began his microscopic inspection using enormous magnification, 1,000-power, to try to find parallel metal flow lines that would be indicative of such work, he said. "Perplexed" at finding no such evidence, he "called it a day," he said.
Returning to the study several days later, he started at lower magnification.
"It was like looking for a house on a corner. Sometimes you have to go back, kind of see what town you're in," he said.
At 20-power, his eye more clearly discerned that the "Extra Leaf Low" variant was formed from two distinct extra lines, whereas the "Extra Leaf High" had only one. And at 40-power, "Boom!" he said. "There was very strong evidence that each had identical, small repeating blemishes like depressions. Instead of being engraved, a tool was used, some type of tool that was hand-punched."
It appeared that the "Extra Leaf Low" marks had been punched at an angle suggesting right-handed blows and that the same tool was used at a different angle for the "Extra Leaf High" variant, Pilliod said.
Next, he wanted to try to determine at what stage of die preparation or use the marks had been added.
He had some State Quarter dollar dies that had been sold by the Mint after the striking surfaces were ground down. They had been used to mint coins and so were in a pressready, hardened state. Using a punch tool of his own, and a ball peen hammer, Pilliod tried to punch a mark into one die but found he was unable to penetrate the surface.
He took another State Quarter dollar die, heated it to 1,595 degrees Fahrenheit and then slow-cooled it, to soften the tool steel.
"With the same tool, I was almost able to duplicate the 'extra leaves,' to the same depth," he said.
Die blanks are in such a relatively soft state when a harder hub is used to impress the design into them. Then, the finished dies are hardened and ready to be used in a coining press to strike coins.
"What the tests told us was that the extra leaves were added after hubbing, before final treatment and were done intentionally," Pilliod said.
Based on the scarcity of coins from these dies, supervisors "caught" the altered dies before the end of what would have been their normal lives, he said. The Treasury Department investigation confirmed, from what evidence remained at the time, that this was in fact the case at least for the "Extra Leaf High" variant. CW