Faceless Monroe Presidential Dollar Error Found!

Coin collector Garrett Reich, a dedicated coin-roll searcher, has found an extremely rare Monroe Presidential Dollar error - a so-called "Faceless Dollar." The Faceless Dollar is the cute moniker given to a blank Presidential Dollar planchet that has edge lettering around it. Before Reich made his find, only one Faceless Dollar specimen was known to exist among the one billion or so Presidential Dollars that have been minted thus far, the Smith Specimen found by Ray and Mary Smith in Colorado shortly after the Washington Dollar plain edge errors were discovered. There is even believed to be a third Faceless Dollar out there now, on its way to PCGS for examination.

The Reich Specimen has been authenticated and slabbed by NGC, with the remarkable designation of "James Monroe" on the label. How could NGC be absolutely certain that this was a James Monroe planchet when there were no images struck on the obverse or reverse? How many coins did Reich search through before making his big score? What other errors did Reich find by the time he had been through as many as 50,000 Monroe Dollar coins (his count as of press time?) Where are these Faceless Monroe Dollars being found, and how can you find your own specimen? All of these questions and more are answered in my article about the Faceless Monroe Dollar errors.

Photo by Garrett Reich.