Pennsylvania Quarters

Factual Questions
1

My sister-in-law told me the other day that the US was recalling the new Pennsylvania quarters because of some error. She didn’t know what the error was, but she said that employees at the Wal-Mart she works at were grabbing up all of them they could find. This, of course, sounded pretty fishy to me. (She still believes that the Mexican dog/rat urban legend actually happened to a f.o.a.f.) Sure enough, the Coin World website has no mention of flaws specific to Pennsylvania quarters, nor any mention of a recall.

Has anyone other members of the TM heard this fledgling urban legend?

“The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.” -George Carlin

2

I can’t find any info about a flaw in the coin either. I do know a few people who save all the new quarters they come across, thinking they’ll be worth something one day; this might have evolved into a mini-UL of some kind. (People also save the 1976 “drummer boy” quarters, though they’re also too common to be really collectible.)

Personally, I just plan to save fifty of the new quarters-- one shiny specimen of each state design. I don’t expect to make money, but maybe someday my grandkids will find them interesting.

3

I was wondering if the US had new quarters. Yesterday, I noticed one among my spare change that said Delaware on the back and had the name and drawing of Ceasar Rodney on it, a revolution hero from Del.

Is there going to be a quarter for each state? How come I didn’t hear about this until now?

4

Bill, come on, you signed the act into law! The Mint is making a special quarter for each state, to be released in the order that state joined the Union. Only 5 states will be minted each year, so it’ll take 10 years to do (assuming we don’t admit Puerto Rico in the meantime). Check out the US Mint page at www.usmint.gov. There’s no mention of a recall.

5

If you check out the US Mint page, not only will you find that there is no mention of a recall, and the goverment isn’t going to spend the money to recall quarters unless they are so defective as to kill people, but the real reason I think the Pennsylvania quarter rumor might have gotten started at your sisters Wal-Mart is presented. Pennsyvania quarters are no longer being made and distributed, we’re into the New Jersey Quarters now.

Jim Petty
A Snappy message should appear here

6

Is that how they’re doing it? Stopping production of one design when another comes in? Huh… Wonder what they’ll do after Hawaii and Alaska get their coins out - go back to the old design or just flood us with Alaskan quarters…

As for the recall, I’d imagine if the coin was flawed, the US would just let them sit and become horded by collectors instead of trying to get back 2.5 million coiins. Unless they were accidently made out of plutonium or something.

“I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”

7

Yeah, that was what made me suspicious in the first place. There would have to be something pretty dangerous or embarassing for the treasury to issue a recall.

Urban legends are a kind of hobby of mine, and I’m always on the lookout for a new one getting started.

“The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.” -George Carlin

8

I haven’t heard about any kind of recall, but I know that vending machines won’t take Delaware quarters – they’re too light.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
– Henry David Thoreau

9

Really? I used one in a Pepsi machine this morning.

10

By the way, I hardly see New Jersey quarters around. Are they getting released in the same places or have most of them not been circulated yet?

“I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way…”
–Jessica Rabbit,Who Framed Roger Rabbit

11

EJC writes:
By the way, I hardly see New Jersey quarters around.

–Give 'em time. Right now each time they show up in change they get hoarded by the locals.

12

Just yesterday I got three New Jersey quarters in one transaction at McDonald’s. That night, all three were stolen by a vending machine.

“Oh, that machine doesn’t work.”
“Thanks, asshole. Ever hear of paper, scotch tape and a pen?”

13

So far, I’ve only seen Delaware quarters. Maybe they take longer to get out to the West Coast.

Are they made of different metals? They seem to clink a bit differently.

As he succeeds, he takes no credit. And it is just for that reason that credit never leaves him.
– Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching

14

Living in Arizona, it’s pretty rare to come across any “state” quarters so far. Yesterday, I obtained a New Jersey quarter and put it in my glass coin jar to be saved (I estimate the value of this coin after a number of years to be ~ $0.25, but I still want to collect all 50 states eventually). Now I can finally relate to what the hell you people (esp. Easterners) are talking about!!

“I wept because I had no shoes, then I met a man with no feet. So I took his shoes” - Dave Barry

15

Recently, on a consumer radio talk show here in metro Atlanta, [Clark Howard Show on WSB 750 AM}, there was talk about the new US quarters.

A caller mentioned that where he works they deal in huge quantites of quarters (something like a video game shop).

Anyhoo …

This caller mentioned that they place their quarters in bags and weigh them.

They know that a certain weight (say 50 kilograms exactly <think metric>, is equal to a certain dollar amount.

What they were experiencing was a different dollar amount when then deposited them (the bank would weigh them).

Say, for example 90 vs 89.

The caller wanted to know if the new quarters were minted with less weight.

Well the best thing to do in this kind of situation is “to go to the source.”

The US Mint / US Treasury replied that the new coins were the exact weight as the previous issued coins.

Finally …

Whenever something new appears on the scene, like a new postage stamp (à la the 29¢ Elvis stamp) or a new coin, there is always the “collector value” effect / mentality.

A mentality where, “if I save these puppies, and do not spend them, for 30+ years, I will be able to pay for …”

<insert your wish / dream right here>

More than likely, that what was happening at out friendly neighborhood Wal*Mart.

I think the great state of GA will be proudly representated with “their” quarter on Thursday, July 22, 1999.

Think peaches.

The coins are being issued five per year for 10 years, in order of being admitted as a state to the Union.

Terence in Marietta, GA

Be someone’s hero

16

I live in New York and hadn’t seen any Pennsylvania quarters for a long time. Then on July 4th weekend, I took a trip to Williamsburg, VA, and suddenly, I was getting more of them in my change than old-style eagle quarters!

I guess it just depends whose local bank has just ordered a fresh shipment of quarters from the Federal Reserve.

Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@schicktech.com

“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective

17

Recalling a “defective” coin would be like trying to recall a discontinued Beanie Baby.
Every dope and his brother who had one would assume the value had skyrocketed overnight.

18

I saw a New Jersey quarter today. My boss had it.

Jim Petty
A Snappy message should appear here

19

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Thursday, July 15, 1999, page 2A:

Q) I heard that some of the new US quarters were being recalled because the minting date was printed on the wrong side of the coin.

Can you shed some light?

A) No so.

The date wasn’t printed on the “wrong” side, so there’s no need for any recall, US Mint spokewoman Lauren Vaughen said.

To make more room on the reverse of the commemorative quarters for each state’s design, Congress authorized the US Mint in 1998 to move certain design elements from the back to the front (and visa vera).

The legislation allowing for design changes doesn’t affect the statutory requirement that US coins carry the inscriptions “In God We Trust,” “Liberty,” “United States of America” and “E Pluribus Unum,” as well as a designation of the value of the coin and the year of minting or issuance.

The bill amending Chapter 51 of Title 31 of the US Code permitted the secretary of the Treasure greater discretion with placement of the required inscriptions.

When the legislation was approved, the Mint’s director, Philip Diehl, said it gave Mint engravers “the artistic freedom needed for the statehood designs on the reverse.”

–30–

Terence in Marietta, GA

Be someone’s hero

20

Aha! So the story does exist outside my little corner of the world. Plus an indication of how it started, to boot. Thanks Terry!

-MrKnowItAll
(formerly pathunt)

Carpe hoc!