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Sabotage at the Mint - Ten years ago
EagleEye
Posts: 7,677 ✭✭✭✭✭
“I wanted to embarrass them” is perhaps what he would say, if he was ever found out and questioned. We’ll call him “Roger” but his identity is still unknown. What is known is that in the week prior to the Thanksgiving weekend back in 2004, Roger got his chance at making his mark on numismatic history.
It was nothing unusual for a tray of dies for the current Wisconsin State Quarter to come to his workspace in the die storage room. In fact, it was routine. The dies were still in a workable soft-state as they were already annealed. Roger picked up small screwdriver tool, the kind with interchangeable bits. But this time, there was no bit in the tool. He carefully lined up the circular end of the tool near the corn husk on one of the dies and gave it a strong whack. After examining the mark, he decided to give it a second impression. Whack! “Too low” he thought as he lined the tool up on a second die. Whack! This time the first hit worked perfectly. The marks actually looked like they belonged on the design. They looked like extra leaves on the ear of corn. The dies were put back in the tray waiting to be sent to the furnace to be heat-treated.
A few days later, on Thanksgiving weekend, the newly hardened dies were delivered to the press room where five large presses were stamping out Wisconsin State quarters. Each press had a single coining chamber, so the two dies with Roger’s “special mark” were installed in separate presses. After installation of the dies, the pressman checked to make sure the planchet feeder was full and, satisfied that everything was working properly, pushed the button and started the press. He then went to lunch.
The coins coming out must be constantly inspected. To do this, an inspector walks from press to press and randomly looks carefully at the coins being produced. He came to one of the presses stamping out Roger’s special creations. The inspector grabbed a coin and examined it. He noticed the extra mark and immediately shut down the press. Moving on to the next press, the inspector noticed another defect and shut that press down too.
What happened next, we can’t say for certain since the Mint didn’t investigate the matter until six months later. What is known is that as many as 20,000 coins from each of Roger’s marked dies escaped the mint. And there was no way to get them back.
On December 11, Bob Ford, a sharp-eyed retired police officer living in Tucson Arizona was going through a bag of quarters from his local bank when he came upon one of the quarters containing Roger’s mark. Rather than becoming elated at the discovery, he became slightly discouraged, thinking “Now I’ll have to go through all of these coins again”. When he was finished, Bob had found about 150 or so of the specially marked quarters. He put one of these coins on eBay and it sold for a whopping $1.35. The following week, he brought some of the coins to Rob Weiss of Old Pueblo Coins in Tucson. Rob and his employee, Ben Weinstein, thought the coins were an interesting collectable variety. They did some research and tried to find more. They then called the local newspaper as well as Coin World and Numismatic News.
On January 3, 2005 I was getting ready to leave for a trip to Disney World with my family. After the trip I would stay for the FUN show in Ft. Lauderdale. Just minutes before I left, I recall seeing the cover of the local paper with Rob Weiss’ picture on it. “It sure was nice to see Rob get the front page” I thought. I then began to read about the Wisconsin quarters with the extra marks. “This is something special” I thought. I instructed one of my employees, Bret Palser, to find out more about these quarters and to see if he could get some for the FUN show. He was able to buy up about 50 of the marked quarters for $10 to $15 each.
The 2005 FUN show was busy and I had the curious quarters lying in my case for a couple days, with only a few of my customers seeing them. On Friday at the show, I took a set of them and walked the show floor, stopping any notable numismatist I could find, to get their opinion. I knew I had something when I stopped by Dave Bowers’ table and showed the coins to him. He studied them and asked “How much for a set”? I said $150. He bought it and called David Hall over from PCGS, who was intrigued with them as well. “What should we call them” I asked. “How about ‘Extra Leaf’ quarters”, Dave Bowers suggested, since Roger’s mark near the corn stalk looked like an extra leaf on the corn stalk. Shortly thereafter, Dave Bowers sent his set in to PCGS for grading and attribution, and it became the first graded set of the Wisconsin Extra Leaf Quarters – the High Leaf and Low Leaf.
When I got back to my table there was a crowd wanting to see and buy the quarters at the same $150 per set price. I decided to hold back the few remaining sets I had and began thinking about the opportunities waiting me back in Tucson where these were being found.
When I returned from the show, I immediately offered to buy any and all examples from the various dealers in town for $50 apiece. I ended up getting 300 or so coins in my hands but my sudden interest in the Extra Leafs created a bit more interest by the other dealers in town as well. Soon, Tucson was like a gold rush town! People were flooding the banks with requests for quarters. Examples even started popping up in San Antonio, Texas as well as other places. I figured that even if these were dirt common, they should be worth $50 each, so I didn’t think my offer too risky. I submitted the coins I bought at the $50 level to PCGS and NGC and got them back within a few days - on a bulk submission, no less!
Around this time I gave an interview to an Associated Press reporter who warned me at the conclusion of the interview, “I hope you’re ready for what’s ahead!” Well, it turns out I wasn’t. The news broke nationwide that the coins were being bought by me for $50. Rather than get inundated with sellers, I got inundated with buyers. The NGC certified three-piece sets were priced between $300 for the MS64 sets to $1,100 for the MS67 sets. The few hundred sets I had submitted sold out within a few days. Many of these buyers turned around and offered their sets on eBay for instant profits. Some of these eBay sales were getting 10,000 “watchers”.
Bob Ford was a good friend and had started cherrypicking varieties from circulation back in the early 1990’s. I got him started in this field, when he came to me looking for a cheap way to enjoy the hobby. His wife got to calling him “Nickel-neck” for the time he spent looking at coins. After discovering the Extra Leaf quarters, he came to me and asked if I would help him sell the 100 sets he had. These were special coins and we didn’t want them to be lost to history, so we sent them to NGC and they made special holders saying that these were “Bob Ford Discovery Sets”. These sold for a premium and were a big hit with collectors. Bob used the money to take a sea cruise. Sadly, he passed away about a year later.
By February 2005, finds of these quarters began to dwindle and it looked like the Extra Leaf quarter varieties would be rather scarce. The prices began to climb higher. Human nature being what it is there were those who began spreading false rumors. One rumor that was taken seriously in the hobby press was that a full bag of Extra Leaf quarters had been found in Ohio. This could easily be dismissed since Denver Mint coins weren’t delivered to Ohio and the Extra Leaf quarters were never found in solid rolls, let alone bags. Some prominent error experts claimed the Extra Leaf was caused by random die damage and thus had little collector value. These claims took a long time to dispel, but they were all eventually proved false with the independent research from variety expert and top-notch metallurgist, Chris Pilliod.
Towards the end of 2005, my involvement in marketing these coins ended since my core business is buying and selling Indian cents. I sold all my remaining Extra leaf quarters in December 2005. My timing could not have been worse, as prices soon shot up to extraordinary levels. A couple of things happened to make the prices shoot up. First, the rarity levels became more established and some collectors felt that there was great future potential in the quarters. The 2007 Red Book was released in the spring of 2006 and mentioned the coins. The Extra Leaf quarters were becoming a mainstream variety. The prices paid on eBay began to rise dramatically. Three-piece sets graded by NGC as MS67 were being bid up on eBay to unsustainable levels – in some cases up to $10,000. This bubble caused by the eBay bidding frenzy didn’t last and prices soon collapsed. Those same NGC MS67 sets today are trading around $3,000. Since then prices have remained soft compared to 2006. I believe this softness is because eBay is the main venue for sales and there was virtually no dealer participation in marketing the quarters. When the only sales information comes from eBay, where prices can jump all over the place, it is difficult to get a handle on the actual pricing. The current prices are listed on page 10 of the Coin Dealer Newsletter Monthly Supplement under Early Singles and Varieties. Pricing is also in the Red Book, Coin Values and Coin Prices. There is still interest in the coins, as a single PCGS graded MS-67 High Leaf variety recently sold for $10,000. This is a pop 2 coin and was offered for as much as $45,000 in 2006.
I think the Wisconsin Extra Leaf quarters are a very intriguing variety and will someday become as valuable to collectors as the 1955 Double Die cent and the 1937-D 3-legged Buffalo nickel -- two varieties of nearly equal rarity to each of the Extra Leaf varieties. To help people better understand the Extra leaf quarters, I made two short informational videos -- one details how they were made and the other shows the price history up to 2007.
Video - how they were made
Video - Rarity and values
It was nothing unusual for a tray of dies for the current Wisconsin State Quarter to come to his workspace in the die storage room. In fact, it was routine. The dies were still in a workable soft-state as they were already annealed. Roger picked up small screwdriver tool, the kind with interchangeable bits. But this time, there was no bit in the tool. He carefully lined up the circular end of the tool near the corn husk on one of the dies and gave it a strong whack. After examining the mark, he decided to give it a second impression. Whack! “Too low” he thought as he lined the tool up on a second die. Whack! This time the first hit worked perfectly. The marks actually looked like they belonged on the design. They looked like extra leaves on the ear of corn. The dies were put back in the tray waiting to be sent to the furnace to be heat-treated.
A few days later, on Thanksgiving weekend, the newly hardened dies were delivered to the press room where five large presses were stamping out Wisconsin State quarters. Each press had a single coining chamber, so the two dies with Roger’s “special mark” were installed in separate presses. After installation of the dies, the pressman checked to make sure the planchet feeder was full and, satisfied that everything was working properly, pushed the button and started the press. He then went to lunch.
The coins coming out must be constantly inspected. To do this, an inspector walks from press to press and randomly looks carefully at the coins being produced. He came to one of the presses stamping out Roger’s special creations. The inspector grabbed a coin and examined it. He noticed the extra mark and immediately shut down the press. Moving on to the next press, the inspector noticed another defect and shut that press down too.
What happened next, we can’t say for certain since the Mint didn’t investigate the matter until six months later. What is known is that as many as 20,000 coins from each of Roger’s marked dies escaped the mint. And there was no way to get them back.
On December 11, Bob Ford, a sharp-eyed retired police officer living in Tucson Arizona was going through a bag of quarters from his local bank when he came upon one of the quarters containing Roger’s mark. Rather than becoming elated at the discovery, he became slightly discouraged, thinking “Now I’ll have to go through all of these coins again”. When he was finished, Bob had found about 150 or so of the specially marked quarters. He put one of these coins on eBay and it sold for a whopping $1.35. The following week, he brought some of the coins to Rob Weiss of Old Pueblo Coins in Tucson. Rob and his employee, Ben Weinstein, thought the coins were an interesting collectable variety. They did some research and tried to find more. They then called the local newspaper as well as Coin World and Numismatic News.
On January 3, 2005 I was getting ready to leave for a trip to Disney World with my family. After the trip I would stay for the FUN show in Ft. Lauderdale. Just minutes before I left, I recall seeing the cover of the local paper with Rob Weiss’ picture on it. “It sure was nice to see Rob get the front page” I thought. I then began to read about the Wisconsin quarters with the extra marks. “This is something special” I thought. I instructed one of my employees, Bret Palser, to find out more about these quarters and to see if he could get some for the FUN show. He was able to buy up about 50 of the marked quarters for $10 to $15 each.
The 2005 FUN show was busy and I had the curious quarters lying in my case for a couple days, with only a few of my customers seeing them. On Friday at the show, I took a set of them and walked the show floor, stopping any notable numismatist I could find, to get their opinion. I knew I had something when I stopped by Dave Bowers’ table and showed the coins to him. He studied them and asked “How much for a set”? I said $150. He bought it and called David Hall over from PCGS, who was intrigued with them as well. “What should we call them” I asked. “How about ‘Extra Leaf’ quarters”, Dave Bowers suggested, since Roger’s mark near the corn stalk looked like an extra leaf on the corn stalk. Shortly thereafter, Dave Bowers sent his set in to PCGS for grading and attribution, and it became the first graded set of the Wisconsin Extra Leaf Quarters – the High Leaf and Low Leaf.
When I got back to my table there was a crowd wanting to see and buy the quarters at the same $150 per set price. I decided to hold back the few remaining sets I had and began thinking about the opportunities waiting me back in Tucson where these were being found.
When I returned from the show, I immediately offered to buy any and all examples from the various dealers in town for $50 apiece. I ended up getting 300 or so coins in my hands but my sudden interest in the Extra Leafs created a bit more interest by the other dealers in town as well. Soon, Tucson was like a gold rush town! People were flooding the banks with requests for quarters. Examples even started popping up in San Antonio, Texas as well as other places. I figured that even if these were dirt common, they should be worth $50 each, so I didn’t think my offer too risky. I submitted the coins I bought at the $50 level to PCGS and NGC and got them back within a few days - on a bulk submission, no less!
Around this time I gave an interview to an Associated Press reporter who warned me at the conclusion of the interview, “I hope you’re ready for what’s ahead!” Well, it turns out I wasn’t. The news broke nationwide that the coins were being bought by me for $50. Rather than get inundated with sellers, I got inundated with buyers. The NGC certified three-piece sets were priced between $300 for the MS64 sets to $1,100 for the MS67 sets. The few hundred sets I had submitted sold out within a few days. Many of these buyers turned around and offered their sets on eBay for instant profits. Some of these eBay sales were getting 10,000 “watchers”.
Bob Ford was a good friend and had started cherrypicking varieties from circulation back in the early 1990’s. I got him started in this field, when he came to me looking for a cheap way to enjoy the hobby. His wife got to calling him “Nickel-neck” for the time he spent looking at coins. After discovering the Extra Leaf quarters, he came to me and asked if I would help him sell the 100 sets he had. These were special coins and we didn’t want them to be lost to history, so we sent them to NGC and they made special holders saying that these were “Bob Ford Discovery Sets”. These sold for a premium and were a big hit with collectors. Bob used the money to take a sea cruise. Sadly, he passed away about a year later.
By February 2005, finds of these quarters began to dwindle and it looked like the Extra Leaf quarter varieties would be rather scarce. The prices began to climb higher. Human nature being what it is there were those who began spreading false rumors. One rumor that was taken seriously in the hobby press was that a full bag of Extra Leaf quarters had been found in Ohio. This could easily be dismissed since Denver Mint coins weren’t delivered to Ohio and the Extra Leaf quarters were never found in solid rolls, let alone bags. Some prominent error experts claimed the Extra Leaf was caused by random die damage and thus had little collector value. These claims took a long time to dispel, but they were all eventually proved false with the independent research from variety expert and top-notch metallurgist, Chris Pilliod.
Towards the end of 2005, my involvement in marketing these coins ended since my core business is buying and selling Indian cents. I sold all my remaining Extra leaf quarters in December 2005. My timing could not have been worse, as prices soon shot up to extraordinary levels. A couple of things happened to make the prices shoot up. First, the rarity levels became more established and some collectors felt that there was great future potential in the quarters. The 2007 Red Book was released in the spring of 2006 and mentioned the coins. The Extra Leaf quarters were becoming a mainstream variety. The prices paid on eBay began to rise dramatically. Three-piece sets graded by NGC as MS67 were being bid up on eBay to unsustainable levels – in some cases up to $10,000. This bubble caused by the eBay bidding frenzy didn’t last and prices soon collapsed. Those same NGC MS67 sets today are trading around $3,000. Since then prices have remained soft compared to 2006. I believe this softness is because eBay is the main venue for sales and there was virtually no dealer participation in marketing the quarters. When the only sales information comes from eBay, where prices can jump all over the place, it is difficult to get a handle on the actual pricing. The current prices are listed on page 10 of the Coin Dealer Newsletter Monthly Supplement under Early Singles and Varieties. Pricing is also in the Red Book, Coin Values and Coin Prices. There is still interest in the coins, as a single PCGS graded MS-67 High Leaf variety recently sold for $10,000. This is a pop 2 coin and was offered for as much as $45,000 in 2006.
I think the Wisconsin Extra Leaf quarters are a very intriguing variety and will someday become as valuable to collectors as the 1955 Double Die cent and the 1937-D 3-legged Buffalo nickel -- two varieties of nearly equal rarity to each of the Extra Leaf varieties. To help people better understand the Extra leaf quarters, I made two short informational videos -- one details how they were made and the other shows the price history up to 2007.
Video - how they were made
Video - Rarity and values
Rick Snow, Eagle Eye Rare Coins, Inc.Check out my new web site:
0
Comments
But in this case, they got by because the die damage happened to look like it was supposed to be there.
So I think these were an accident and not intentional.
Regardless, I think they are an important variety and very collectible as such.
Thus, however this happened, whomever caused these dies to be what they were, was never identified publicly. I checked with a friend of mine and he does not remember a resolution to this issue either. Again, it was more of a tempest in a teapot at Mint HQ as no one really cared all that much. For all I know it was a PR job not to reveal what happened... I do NOT know that for certain, all I know is that no one was ever identified as the individual responsible.
actually, this should have started the whole thread because we'll almost certainly never know what happened.
<< <i>What happened next, we can’t say for certain
actually, this should have started the whole thread because we'll almost certainly never know what happened. >>
in this crowd too...
<< <i>The coins coming out must be constantly inspected. To do this, an inspector walks from press to press and randomly looks carefully at the coins being produced. He came to one of the presses stamping out Roger’s special creations. The inspector grabbed a coin and examined it. He noticed the extra mark and immediately shut down the press. Moving on to the next press, the inspector noticed another defect and shut that press down too. What happened next, we can’t say for certain since the Mint didn’t investigate the matter until six months later. What is known is that as many as 20,000 coins from each of Roger’s marked dies escaped the mint. And there was no way to get them back. >>
What's the point of even inspecting the coins if you can't keep them from leaving the mint? Is the solution to the problem simply to change the die and let existing/already made product go on it's merry way? It looks like whatever the issue/error was, it wasn't serious enough to warrant holding/quarantining the coins until the mint got around to investigating.
Fixed video link
I was one of the guys at my local bank buying up mega rolls. Don't recall the final count but it went very well, even hired another employee for searching. Sold many unopened "Tucson rolls" on Ebay at huge premiums.
I recall as well my banker telling me that a large national bank had found thousands of extra leaf quarters that they were holding back. Quite likely false.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
<< <i>I think the 2004-D dime with the "extra ear" is related. Probably a first test-case. If failed to generate any publicity and was called an accident. My theory is that the saboteur did two dies this time, just so it couldn't be called an accident. >>
But what is strange is, the cent dies were used at Philadelphia!
Thanks for posting it EagleEye.
<< <i>I remember when these came out but never heard the story on how they became.
Thanks for posting it EagleEye. >>
You still haven't, while backed with some solid research the OP is still closer to historical fiction than a definitive account. There is simply no way to prove these marks were made intentionally. Until someone steps forward and raises his hand as the source of the gouges, I still fall back on Occam's Razor and believe the marks were unintentional.
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
<< <i>I still fall back on Occam's Razor and believe the marks were unintentional. >>
That seems the most plausible to me.
The Mules
Hoard the keys.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
<< <i>Having been born and raised in God's Country (Wisconsin - land of beer, cheese, corn, brats, and the Packers), I had to own a set of these varieties. Thanks Rick, for all the details. >>
Nothing like forgetting the most important thing Wisc has to offer...
I live in Calif and would give anything for Culver's frozen custard
I remember this very well because the discovery --- or at least its FUN show exposure ---
broke out a couple weeks after I signed on as publisher at Whitman. I'd spent part of
that morning with Q. David Bowers, talking about books and projects, and we were
taking a break sitting at the American Numismatic Rarities booth. (As always, Dave was
wearing several hats at the show; at the time he was numismatic director of ANR and held
the same position at Whitman, as he still does.)
"Rick Snow" was on my radar from reading your name and seeing your ads in the hobby
papers, but I hadn't met you yet and wouldn't have recognized you, but Dave was happy
to see you approaching the table, and gave a warm greeting. I remember his growing
excitement and interest as you showed the Wisconsin quarters to Dave and explained
their diagnostics. His reaction was like a kid seeing a new toy for the first time! He was
delighted. I remember how he offered to buy them, without any hesitation or a second
thought. This was my first exposure to Dave's keen interest in EVERYTHING numismatic,
whether it's from the 1600s, the 1700s, or so modern that most "classic" collectors
wouldn't give it a second glance.
David Hall just happened to be walking down the nearest aisle and Dave excitedly called
him over. Hall was interested too, and he stopped a moment to discuss and examine the coins.
That morning Dave B. and I had been talking about the Red Book and numismatic
nomenclature, so the Wisconsin quarters came along just in time to be a "case study"
for our earlier conversation. "We should come up with names for them," Dave said ---
more as an intellectual exercise, but also in case they were included in the Red Book
at some point in the future. "Extra Leaf" was easy enough, and we brainstormed
"Extra Leaf High" and "Extra Leaf Low" as being suitably descriptive.
It was all very exciting. I wish I'd bought a set that week at FUN, as a souvenir! But
the memories are also a valuable part of my "collection."
That wouldn't be the last I saw of Rick Snow, either. About a year later you were an
official published Whitman author with the Guide Book of Flying Eagle and Indian
Head Cents.
<< I remember when these came out but never heard the story on how they became.
Thanks for posting it EagleEye. >>
You still haven't, while backed with some solid research the OP is still closer to historical fiction than a definitive account. There is simply no way to prove these marks were made intentionally. Until someone steps forward and raises his hand as the source of the gouges, I still fall back on Occam's Razor and believe the marks were unintentional.
Actually I went round and round with errormaven, who's opinion I respect, but I could never get a conclusive way these could have been made other than intentionally. oocam's razor actually falls on the side of intentional sabotage. That is the easiest way to explain these. They are not clashed dies, they are not hub-throughs, they are not anything that can be explained away during the normal minting process. Look at the video.
In an era of limited varities (important naked eye ones) these are important
Jon
The ones i have kept are MS65 and Ms66's.
I think the low leaf is the nicer of the 2.