I've tried to write this piece for the newsletter several times over the last few weeks, and every time I've started the electric power has failed. Mother Nature just isn't cooperating. Maybe I'll get through it this time. I, for one, will certainly be glad to see Spring arrive. The wind and ice storms in our area of the Midwestern United States have taken their toll.

Windstorm damage has caused my daughter the need to replace large portions of the fence around her yard. She has had to reattach siding to her house, and she has had to totally replace the out-building storage shed in her back yard. To this day, I believe she's not entirely sure who owns the full-size trampoline that landed in her back yard from afar. It's pretty well mangled, so, even though it's been there for weeks, no one may claim it.

Ice storms have caused me considerable consternation. Aside from taking down electric power lines, the ice has covered and enveloped everything. I've lost count of the number of times I've slipped while walking and almost did serious bodily damage. And I'm tired of the slippery streets while driving, the snow depth that makes it difficult to walk, and wind chills in the minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit range.

My ice-covered cars have been another serious challenge when I attempt to go to work or need to buy provisions. If it weren't for my remote-start capability (being able to start the car from outside the vehicle with the push of a button), I'd have been without transportation on several occasions. The remote start allows the car to warm-up from the inside, and eventually melts enough of the ice to permit entry. But that can take quite a long time. And, between the snow and ice damage, I'll have to undertake considerable repairs on my covered porch when warmer weather arrives. Come on Spring!!!

For those of you who may not be aware, long-term WINS member Peter Davis has hosted the WINS Domain (the server space which houses our web site) for many years. He also set aside a portion of his CoinTalk Domain to host the WINS Business Forum many years ago. The space that WINS occupies on Peter's servers is considerable. Yet Peter has donated all of it, without limit, to our club; he's never charged us for either of these services.

A couple of months ago, in December 2007, a motion was made within the Board of Directors proposing that we, as a club, offer a monetary donation to Peter Davis. The motion's intent was to help defray the expense a bit and to show our appreciation for Peter providing the expensive server space. After some minimal discussion, it was determined that $200 would be an appropriate stipend. The Board's approval of motion #2007-05 caused our Treasurer to forward the funds via our WINS PayPal account. Our gesture was accepted in early January, 2008 by Peter. Thanks, Peter, for everything you do for our club. 

During the course of 2007, I began to look earnestly at the newest of the United States Mint's offerings, the Presidential Dollar coins. I was interested in seeing whether the quality of these coins minted for circulation was pretty decent or merely typical of the normal circulation-quality coins issued every year.

Over a period of time, after each of the first four 2007 Presidential designs was released, I was able to acquire at least $1000 worth of each design to peruse. This was accomplished without a large monetary investment by acquiring some rolls, looking at them, and then re-depositing the funds. The rollover of acquisition and redeposit worked well. I only looked at uncirculated coins that I received in $25 sealed rolls. In my section of the Midwestern United States I was only able to acquire the Philadelphia-mint version of the coins. So I'm not sure if my observations would apply to the Denver issues as well.

One of the first things I noticed was that many of the coins were proof-like or semi-proof-like in appearance; that is to say that the fields of those coins were somewhat mirrored. At a glance, that purported well for the overall quality. As usual, most of the coins were fairly well bag-marked. Those with lesser bag-marks, were observed more closely. But the closer observation tended to reveal that most of the coins weren't really struck very well.

Aside from weak strikes and bag-marks, there was the typical smattering of minor strike-through errors, slightly misaligned dies, and the occasional die crack. The majority of the coins in my sampling were late or very-late die state pieces. After viewing many thousands of dollars of these coins over the course of the year, I found only a handful that were potentially worthy of certification; and those few that qualified would likely not exceed the MS-65 range.

It was fun looking through all these dollar coins in my limited spare time. But I wasn't particularly impressed with the quality. Even though my observations weren't scientific by any means, I believe they were highly indicative of the quality of the circulation-strike versions of the Presidential Dollars. And to answer the nagging question ... no, I didn't find any of the major errors that are bringing the big bucks in today's marketplace; though I do have an interesting story to relate in that regard.

Several days ago our Vice President, Doug Prather, posted a link on the talk list that led to an article about Monroe Dollar coins being struck on quarter-dollar planchets. The hobby publications have also published articles about this wrong-planchet error. Coin World even simulated a photo of a silvery-color (copper-nickel composition) Monroe Dollar to show how an error of this nature might look. They depicted it adjacent a photo of the normal golden-colored (manganese-brass) Monroe Dollar.

Apparently there were many thousands of these wrong-planchet dollar coins discovered by an armored-car company as they bank-wrapped the coins for delivery to commerce channels. The coin handler shipped all of those error coins back to the U.S. Mint. The Mint has received the errors from the coin handler company, has launched an investigation through the U.S. Inspector General's Office, and will destroy all of the errant pieces. Too bad. But maybe, with a bit of luck, a few of those error coins escaped and will enter commerce and be discovered by a coin collector.

Early last year when I was attempting to get some rolls of the Jefferson Dollars at my local bank, I was informed by the bank teller that they didn't yet have any of the Jefferson coins. Since it was beyond the date of release for the Jefferson coins, I asked to speak with the vault manager who orders the coins from the armored-car delivery service. She explained that they had, in fact, received some of the Jefferson Dollars a week or so earlier, but she sent them back to the armored-car carrier because they weren't right.

I speculated to her that the armored carrier had actually sent more of the previous-issue Adams Dollars by mistake. But she stated that wasn't the problem. She went on to advise me that she had actually received Jefferson Dollars in sealed rolls, but they were all silver colored coins so she didn't want them. Since they were the wrong color, she figured that none of the people who requested those coins would want them. I asked her how many of the wrong color coins she had received. She replied that she received several thousand-dollar boxes of the "bad looking" Jefferson coins and she didn't want to be stuck with so many of the wrong color coins that no one would want because they didn't match the color of the Presidential series.

After my jaw hit the floor and my heart quit racing, I advised her that if she ever received any more of the wrong color Presidential coins (or any other wrong-color coins series for that matter), she should let me take a look at them before sending them back. She agreed, but she is still scratching her head as to why anyone might be interested in any coins that don't match the normal colors. Go figure!

Best Regards,
Ralph J. Huntzinger
WINS#158, President