We talk about errors and varieties all the time. Whether or not done on purpose, they make a splash in the hobby once discovered. Our next in this 100 Greatest United States Modern Coins blog series is no exception. We have been breaking down Whitman Publishing’s fourth edition list for months now and this next pick may come as a surprise, especially if you are not the most seasoned vet in the numismatic field. With authors Scott Schechter and Jeff Garrett in the driver’s seat, we take a closer look at what appeared to be a basic quarter dollar but ended up being a significant but localized find.
#19 - 2004-D, Extra Leaf, Wisconsin Quarters
The 50 State Quarters Program from the United States Mint was a great idea on paper. However, by 2004, the program’s excitement was dwindling as it was already more than five years old. The program did, however, usher in a new group of collectors that would begin their journey in the hobby by putting together quarter sets from pocket change. Circulating coins were being looked at harder than ever, but the coins themselves were no longer newsworthy. That all changed with the release of the Wisconsin quarter on October 25, 2004.
Bob Ford, a Tucson, Arizona, collector would come upon a handful of the agricultural themed quarters that appeared to look different from the rest. By December of 2004, he noticed an extra leaf placed beneath the left leaf on the ear of the corn which happened to be one of the central design elements on the reverse. The extra leaf was then found to have two different varieties with a “thin extra leaf that ran from the base of the ear and connected with the larger, curved leaf above” and the other showing a “thicker leaf that came out of the ear at a lower angle, never touching the leaf above.” The thinner variety was called the Extra Leaf High while the thicker leaf was called the Extra Leaf Low.
Ford shared this find with a local dealer and indeed it was found that he came upon something unusual. Immediately after, the Extra Leaf quarters were trading for hundreds of dollars. The news of the find quickly spread to mainstream outlets and by January of 2005, it was all over the front page of USA Today. According to authors Schechter and Garrett, the error was the result of a die-gouge. However, the exact cause of the varieties is still unknown today.
According to the results of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requested by USA Today and released in January of 2006, approximately 50,000 coins featuring blemishes were struck on a Friday night in November of 2004. Denver Mint employees knew the blemishes occurred, but the coins had already been bagged and ready to be shipped. It would have been too costly for them to unpack and open the bagged coins and so they entered circulation. It was also found that their distribution appeared to have been local to the Tucson area as collectors across the country were looking for them with no success.
Since the first edition of this publication, the Wisconsin quarter variety has moved down just one spot.