This major error coin was found in Michigan by Mary C. The path to discovering just exactly what she had found is amusing (if a bit self-deprecating.) It went something like this (in brief email exchanges back and forth):
Mary: Hello there. I have a Washington Dollar that has no gold on one side of the coin. Is that an error? Thank you for your time.
Me: (At the time Mary's first email came in, on March 14, 2007, I was buried under a deluge of email that reached 200 messages per hour at times, all from people reporting Presidential Dollar errors or hoped-for errors. I had just seen a spike in unburnished planchet reports because of a featured auction on eBay for one that was topping $1,200, and Mary's email sounded like more of the same to my exhausted mind.) Your dollar with no gold on one side is almost certainly an error if you got it from a mint roll from the bank. DOH! My message went on in a similar idiotic vein for three paragraphs, ending with a request for photos.
Mary: Here is a photo of my coin, and yes I purchased from a mint roll at the bank.
Me: Thank you for sending the scan of your coin, plus the comparison coin! Good thinking! =) See the photo Mary sent, above. Her error coin is on the right. How far off gold color is your "error" coin? Does it have some gold coloring, or none at all? Is it entirely copper colored on that side and the photos just make it SEEM like there is gold on it?
I have to admit to being skeptical here. Her photo appears to show a blotch or smear of copper coloring, and in my over-tired mind I was wondering if she was trying to put one over on me. For some reason, my brain was locked on this "unburnished planchet" notion, but I couldn't figure out how only one side of the planchet could be unburnished! I asked Mary to get the coin weighed (on the advice of Tom DeLorey, who was a wonderful help to me throughout this frenzied period.)
Mary: The regular one weighs 8 grams and the other one weighs 5.7 grams.
Me: If your error coin only weighs 5.7 grams, it seems certain to be missing a clad layer. The question, then, is why did the strike come up so well? Usually on seriously underweight coins, the strike is weak and fuzzy because there isn't enough metal to fill the dies. I never did get the answer to why the strike wasn't weak. Tom DeLorey photo-authenticated the error as a Missing Reverse Clad Layer, which was lost before striking. (Continued on the next page.)
Mary: Hello there. I have a Washington Dollar that has no gold on one side of the coin. Is that an error? Thank you for your time.
Me: (At the time Mary's first email came in, on March 14, 2007, I was buried under a deluge of email that reached 200 messages per hour at times, all from people reporting Presidential Dollar errors or hoped-for errors. I had just seen a spike in unburnished planchet reports because of a featured auction on eBay for one that was topping $1,200, and Mary's email sounded like more of the same to my exhausted mind.) Your dollar with no gold on one side is almost certainly an error if you got it from a mint roll from the bank. DOH! My message went on in a similar idiotic vein for three paragraphs, ending with a request for photos.
Mary: Here is a photo of my coin, and yes I purchased from a mint roll at the bank.
Me: Thank you for sending the scan of your coin, plus the comparison coin! Good thinking! =) See the photo Mary sent, above. Her error coin is on the right. How far off gold color is your "error" coin? Does it have some gold coloring, or none at all? Is it entirely copper colored on that side and the photos just make it SEEM like there is gold on it?
I have to admit to being skeptical here. Her photo appears to show a blotch or smear of copper coloring, and in my over-tired mind I was wondering if she was trying to put one over on me. For some reason, my brain was locked on this "unburnished planchet" notion, but I couldn't figure out how only one side of the planchet could be unburnished! I asked Mary to get the coin weighed (on the advice of Tom DeLorey, who was a wonderful help to me throughout this frenzied period.)
Mary: The regular one weighs 8 grams and the other one weighs 5.7 grams.
Me: If your error coin only weighs 5.7 grams, it seems certain to be missing a clad layer. The question, then, is why did the strike come up so well? Usually on seriously underweight coins, the strike is weak and fuzzy because there isn't enough metal to fill the dies. I never did get the answer to why the strike wasn't weak. Tom DeLorey photo-authenticated the error as a Missing Reverse Clad Layer, which was lost before striking. (Continued on the next page.)