Presidential Dollars...Can the Date and Edge Lettering be Upside Down?

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Author: Bill O'Rourke

When I recently opened a roll of the new George Washington dollars, I found 14 of them with the edge-incused inscriptions "E PLURIBUS UNUM," and "IN GOD WE TRUST," which could only be read with the reverse of the coin up. With the portrait of George Washington obverse up, the edge-incused inscriptions and date were upside down. Is this of any importance? Thank you.

It is normal for the lettering to be applied either way. The coins are struck first then they are placed in the mechanism that will letter the edges and date the coin.

There is no attention paid as to which way the coin is fed into the edge lettering machine. So some will come out with the lettering facing up in relation to the obverse and some will have the lettering up in relation to the reverse. In the overall scheme of things, statistically, over time, it should aproximate fifty percent being one way and fifty percent being the other.

It therefore is not an error but is indeed a normal part of the production. Still, I would want to collect one of each for my collection.