This striking photo really brings the subject home regarding just how many plain edge dollars are floating around out there. Plain edge Washington Dollars are being called "GW MELS" by some error experts. GW means "George Washington" and the MEL part stands for "Missing Edge Lettering." It's sort of funny how the hobby seems to have gone full circle with the terminology being used to describe these dollars.
When the Presidential plain edge dollar story first broke in the numismatic media, everyone was using the term "missing edge lettering" because that's what it was, plain and simple. But "missing edge lettering" has a lot of syllables in it, and it's really a mouthful when you're chatting about coins with friends, so soon we evolved "plain edge" and "smooth edge." These terms were a great deal shorter, and they were easier to say. Then, the mainstream media dubbed the error the "Godless Dollar" and this was the byword of choice for a couple of weeks, but slowly "plain edge" gained currency over the others, particularly over "smooth edge." "Smooth edge" had come to be perceived of as describing faked plain edge dollars, because anybody who had looked at a genuine plain edge dollar under a 10x loupe could see that it was anything but smooth. The fakes, however, really were smooth, thanks to dremels and polishing wheels.
So, how did we find our way back to "Missing Edge Lettering?" We can thank the grading services for this, since this is the designation they have settled on to describe this variety on the slab inserts. But as I noted, "Missing Edge Lettering" is a real mouthful, so dealers are using the term MEL instead! When they speak of GW MELS, I imagine they're being optimistic that future issues of the Presidential Dollars will also produce plain edge varieties. So far, we have hundreds of JA MELS now (John Adams Presidential Dollars with Missing Edge Lettering,) so perhaps soon we'll have a TJ MEL, and even a JM MEL!
When the Presidential plain edge dollar story first broke in the numismatic media, everyone was using the term "missing edge lettering" because that's what it was, plain and simple. But "missing edge lettering" has a lot of syllables in it, and it's really a mouthful when you're chatting about coins with friends, so soon we evolved "plain edge" and "smooth edge." These terms were a great deal shorter, and they were easier to say. Then, the mainstream media dubbed the error the "Godless Dollar" and this was the byword of choice for a couple of weeks, but slowly "plain edge" gained currency over the others, particularly over "smooth edge." "Smooth edge" had come to be perceived of as describing faked plain edge dollars, because anybody who had looked at a genuine plain edge dollar under a 10x loupe could see that it was anything but smooth. The fakes, however, really were smooth, thanks to dremels and polishing wheels.
So, how did we find our way back to "Missing Edge Lettering?" We can thank the grading services for this, since this is the designation they have settled on to describe this variety on the slab inserts. But as I noted, "Missing Edge Lettering" is a real mouthful, so dealers are using the term MEL instead! When they speak of GW MELS, I imagine they're being optimistic that future issues of the Presidential Dollars will also produce plain edge varieties. So far, we have hundreds of JA MELS now (John Adams Presidential Dollars with Missing Edge Lettering,) so perhaps soon we'll have a TJ MEL, and even a JM MEL!