The U.S. Mint has confirmed that a number of ?irregular? 2008-P James Monroe Presidential dollars have been returned to the Mint from a contractor that wraps coinage for the Mint.
A report from a numismatic periodical that quickly spread online said that ?possibly as many as 70,000 to 140,000? Monroe dollars accidentally struck on planchets intended for quarters could be among Monroe dollars that were scheduled to be released Feb. 14.
But a Mint statement of Feb. 4 noted that the contractor returned the errors to the Mint. The statement further said that an internal inquiry has been performed and no irregular Monroe dollars were expected to enter circulation.
The statement reads, ?In mid-January, the United States Mint?s coin-wrapping contractor alerted the agency when it found some irregular James Monroe Presidential $1 coins. The coins in question were immediately returned to the United States Mint. The United States Mint has performed an internal inquiry and presently has no evidence to indicate that any irregular James Monroe Presidential $1 Coins have been sent to the nation?s banks. The United States Mint expects to make an estimated 103 million James Monroe Presidential $1 Coins.?
As the author of the online Mint News Blog (http://mintnewsblog.blogspot.com/) Michael Zielinski points out, however, it is possible that some error examples slipped into the supply for circulation.
?If any of these new errors do find their way into circulation, they will add to the interesting variety of Presidential dollar error coins such as ?missing edge lettering? and ?double edge lettering? coins,? Zielinski wrote.
