Mint worker admits to making Wisconsin quarters!

Aegis3 · April 1, 2007 5:31AM

BOULDER (EAP) -- A retired Denver Mint employee has confessed to altering dies to make the "extra leaves" Wisconsin quarters. Quentin Wyllys Frossard, 62, of Boulder stated to an EAP reporter that he added the leaves to the die in celebration of his retirement from the mint in 2004. Frossard received the idea years earlier when he accidentally damaged a hub, from which the striking dies are made, with a socket wrench. "It was a dime reverse, and it looked like an extra stem," he stated with his revelation. Preparing to retire in 2004, Frossard wanted something to honor the garden planned to work on. "What better way then to enhance an agricultural design like the Wisconsin quarter," he told our reporter.

His first attempt is known as the "high leaf" quarter. Frossard called it a failure, noting that the leaf protrudes from the block of cheese. "I did not want to honor moldy cheese," so he put that die back and took a second one, producing the "low leaf" die. "I got this one twice, and punched it a second time to add some depth to the new leaf. With this die I finally had something I could use to honor my garden I am working on in my retirement." Frossard did not expect the coins to be released together, and in fact hoped they were released in the Boulder area, so he could have showed them to his friends and family. Because they were instead released to Arizona and Texas, he stayed quiet about the coins, as his connection to them had been severed.

Frossard was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer, and he wanted to admit to the modified coins he has made. In addition, he read that metallurgist and numismatic expert Chris Pilliod had recently analyzed the Wisconsin quarters showing that they were intentionally produced, and he wanted to confirm these findings. Frossard also admitted to altering the heads dies to some 1970-S Lincoln cents, noting that he wanted to "take the separation of church and state seriously, and made some 'Godless' pennies by breaking the dies around the offending 'In God We Trust' motto." Frossard noted that Pilliod analyzed the Wisconsin quarters well, with one small exception. "I'm left handed," he noted with a slight laugh.