Edge Lettering

Is there going to be edge lettering in 2008-2016+?

I believe that when the Washington dollars were released, they were already striking the Adams dollars and after the errors on the Washingtons were discovered they began to change their manufacturing methods to try and alleviate these problems. Notice there were alot more Washington plain edge dollars than Adams Plain edge. I guess to try and stop the smooth edges from coming out they must have run some twice since the Adams had double struck edges, and since the Jefferson dollars have been released errors have dropped dramatically.

I guess they finally got it down how to keep the struck coins separated with edge and no edge yet bins. I believe that they started talking about stopping the edge lettering right about the time when they got their (you know what) together at the mint. So , I believe they were already working on the problem when the talk of removing edge lettering was publicized so it is coincidental.

As for edge lettering in the future - I have not heard anything since. I would think that since the errors have all but stopped, they will keep going with the edge lettering- as much as I would like to see it stopped to make this a one year type !

I agree Metalman , we are so advanced....I am left to wonder why, after having edge lettered coins in the past (Bust halves come to mind ) , did they change the method of manufacture ? I could be mistaken but I think the edge lettering of yesteryear was struck "in collar" so not much chance of doubling or missing the edges. They added an extra step to manufacturing and now they have to deal with it. I too am of the belief that some of this could be purposely done by a mint employee. An observation (not fact and not an accusation) by Susan Headley about some errors found made me think even more about human intervention. Seems the last couple of Denver errors have been found pretty close to the mint itself (within less than an hour 's drive) And they are unique. A Sac with edge lettering found in circulation was one of them, I would have to go back and find out what the other one was- pretty fishy if you ask me. The Sac's are not even supposed to be circulating....

Thanks for the clarification Bryan, I forgot to mention that those coins had a price on their heads ! All the more reason to suspect foul play.

Reminds me of an Episode of "Monk" . An employee of the mint surreptitiously strikes a few errors and sneaks them out of the mint, not so far fetched I guess.

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I noticed that when they proposed to take the edge lettering off of the new Presidential dollars that the errors stopped coming out? Coincidence?

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No I agree with InfiniteInterst, by the time the Congress got around to reacting to the "problem" the mint had already done a great deal toward eliminating the problem making congressional action unneeded, but we get it anyway.

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Is there going to be edge lettering in 2008-2016+?

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In 2008 at least. The amendment forbidding the mint from spending money to mint lettered edge coins was removed from the appropriations bill, so there will be lettered edge President dollars in 2008. The Sac dollar bill also requires edge lettering on them when they begin in 2009, so unless they pass new legislation next year the lettered edge dollars will continue in subsequent years as well. (And except for an amendment submitted last May that never went anywhere, they have NEVER proposed removing the edge lettering from the dollar coins. Even the amendment that made it into the appropriations bill did not remove the lettering.)

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am left to wonder why, after having edge lettered coins in the past (Bust halves come to mind ) , did they change the method of manufacture ? I could be mistaken but I think the edge lettering of yesteryear was struck "in collar" so not much chance of doubling or missing the edges. They added an extra step to manufacturing and now they have to deal with it.

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The bust halves were lettered by a method similar to how the dollars are lettered today. Only they rolled the blanks between two dies each of which had half the lettering and today we use a roller and a single die that has the complete inscription. And the bust halves are well known for having blundered edges just like todays dollars. And they were making only a few million half dollars a year, not 1.2 billion. Even with the huge number of blank Washingtons that came out, the error rate for the president dollars as a whole is still only 0.006%. If you ignore the Washingtons and only look at the Adams coins and later then the error rate drops to 0.001%. For the Jeffersons 0.00001%

The Saint-Gaudens eagle and double eagle did use a segmented collar to apply the edge during striking and had no problem with blundered edges, But that technology can't be applied the todays high speed horizontal striking presses. Or if it could the equipment would be so complex that it would be constantly breaking down resulting in even more downtime or errors.

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I believe $6,250.00 (half the money from both coins) would be plenty of a incentive for a mint employee to make sure one of these were made and be sure it was put in a friends hands who could then submit it to PCGS for the money

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They must be pretty desperate or are selling themselves way too cheap then. I know I wouldn't risk my comfortable annual salary, the chance of having two felony convictions on my record (Theft of government property and Conversion of government property and I bet they can come up with some other charges as well. Since there are two or more people involved, how about conspiracy to commit fraud?) and 15 to 50 years in a Federal prison for $7,000.

I despise edge lettering. It's terrible and I will not own any. That's how much I don't like it.