Philadelphia Mint Goes Godless for Possibly $50,000

On February 15th, 2007, the unofficial limited edition of the George Washington dollar coin went into circulation without the inscription "In God We Trust". While conspiracy theorists and god-less humans are dancing with glee, others are bidding as much as $50 for them on eBay.

The coins, which also have "E Pluribus Unum", the year and mint mark inscribed, somehow managed to sneak past the specially trained inspectors. Had they been caught, the potential collectors item would have been melted down.

Often mistaken for quarters at first glace, President Bush is considering a working visa program for the coins in an effort to maintain their full $1 value.

U.S. Mint spokeswoman Becky Bailey said it was unknown how many coins lacked the inscriptions. Ron Guth, president of Professional Coin Grading Service, one of the world's largest coin authentication companies, said he believes that at least 50,000 error coins were put in circulation.

Inspecting fifty of the coins all by himself, Guth stated the problem was in quality control and not anything mechanical.

"These coins are struck like normal coins, then they go through another machine that adds edge lettering in another process. These apparently skipped that process," he said. "We've seen a couple of instances where the edge lettering may be weak or indistinct, but we're not talking about that here."

Mints in Philadelphia and Denver make the coins, but so far only Philly has checked in with errors. The Philadelphia mint, which employees about five-hundred people, produced 7.8 billion coins in 2006 so a mistake here and there should be forgivable.

Embarrassed to face the public, the mint issued a statement explaining that the production of the presidential dollar entails a "new, complex, high-volume manufacturing system" that the mint will adjust to eliminate any future defects.

"We take this matter seriously. We also consider quality control a high priority. The agency is looking into the matter to determine a possible cause in the manufacturing process," the statement said.