New discovery 2021 Quarter-Ounce American gold eagles with “W” mint marks 1 1

[ccroger]

Announcing a new discovery:

2021 ¼ ounce type 2 gold eagles struck with unfinished proof dies

PCGS has graded bullion issue ¼ gold eagles with a W mintmark.  No ¼ ounce bullion coins bearing the W mintmark were scheduled to be struck this year, as no W mintmark fractional gold have been issued since 2009.

Very shortly there will be a press release about the discovery. 

The error roll was discovered by Gerald Medal (Lakeside coins on instagram) and then he shared it with to Todd Pollock (BluCC Photos). Gerald and Todd have been talking about the error, trying figure it out what it is, trying to see if there are more and just enjoying working and researching the discovery.  Not wanting to wait too long Gerald brought the coins to Ian Russell at GreatCollections. Ian submitted the coins for grading and to verify the discovery. 

In 1999 the same error occurred with 6,000 being noted as struck by the mint with unfinished proof dies. In 1999, 564,232 quarter eagles were struck and an additional 6,000 unfinished proof die coins were also struck. So far in 2021, 54,000 coins have been distributed by the mint, and we will have to wait and see if they can provide a mintage figure for the unfinished dies. Regardless we know the overall mintage for ¼ ounce eagles this year is significantly less and the discovery of the error took some time. Since the discovery we have found 1 image of a W mintmark coin online. They appear elusive and we are curious how many pop up over time. 

About the coin: For starters the obvious, a W where there should not be. The relief of the coin seems softer and less sharp than the regular strike. We have not seen any PL look to the coins. Some of the rays appear narrower on the W coin. 

I am posting my images here of the 2021-W, 2021-(w), and the 2021-W proof for comparisons. 

[Fenntucky Mike]

Very interesting and a pretty sweet discovery! It'll be interesting to see how many were produced/escaped the mint.

[Coinbuf]

Congrats on the find.

[Mohawk]

On 10/26/2021 at 6:33 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Very interesting and a pretty sweet discovery! It'll be interesting to see how many were produced/escaped the mint.

Indeed it will.  This will definitely serve to give the Type 2 AGEs even more attention.  Nice find.

[VKurtB]

Does anyone know how it was acquired? Choices:

From the bullion sales channel?

From a proof piece purchase from the Mint?
 

From a Chinese producer?

[Fenntucky Mike]

https://www.pcgs.com/news/regular-strike-quarter-ounce-2021-american-eagles-with-w-mint-marks

https://www.greatcollections.com/search.php?q=2021-W+Unfinished&mode=product&sort=01

[numisport]

Like many other clandestine mint endeavors the question may be was this intentional ? If so are they legal to own ? How many more are there ? 

You know the routine right ?

[DWLange]

Perhaps not done intentionally, but it was certainly a careless lapse in quality control. The same mistake occurred with two denominations of gold ASEs in 1999, so there's no reason to believe this recurrence will be handled differently.

[Henri Charriere]

On 10/30/2021 at 8:54 PM, VKurtB said:

Does anyone know how it was acquired? Choices:

From the bullion sales channel?

From a proof piece purchase from the Mint?
 

From a Chinese producer?

I wouldn't be surprised if all roads lead to Rosemont or some other similar get-up. When VKurtB was spotted prowling the floor with his Speed Graphic, all negotiations were conducted confidentially by interested parties under the counter and quite possibly before the show.   🤔  

[ccroger]

On 10/30/2021 at 5:54 PM, VKurtB said:

Does anyone know how it was acquired? Choices:

From the bullion sales channel?

From a proof piece purchase from the Mint?
 

From a Chinese producer?

Via bullion channels. 

[Conder101]

Yes via bullion channels, 40 pieces were in one roll.

[VKurtB]

On 11/3/2021 at 1:24 PM, Conder101 said:

Yes via bullion channels, 40 pieces were in one roll.

That explains getting by  the "quickie" look see. What is a typical annual mintage for 1/4 ouncers, bullion strike? Not huge, I'm guessing. Might be a fairly common thing.

Edited November 4, 2021 by VKurtB

[Fenntucky Mike]

U.S. Mint figures put the total # of 1/4oz Eagles at 152,000 sold, I'm not sure what the splits are though (T1, T2). I read somewhere that another 20 were found, which would bring the current total discovered to 81, plus several other undocumented findings which will raise the total still. I have a feeling there are a lot out there to be found.

https://www.usmint.gov/about/production-sales-figures/bullion-sales?program=American+Eagle&+AmericatheBeautifulSilverBullion5ozCointype=&+AmericanBuffalotype=&+AmericanEagletype=Sales+totals+by+Month&AmericatheBeautifulSilverBullion5ozCoinSalestotalsbyMonthyear=&AmericatheBeautifulSilverBullion5ozCoinYear-datedcoinssoldyear=&AmericanBuffaloSalestotalsbyMonthyear=&AmericanBuffaloYear-datedcoinssoldyear=&AmericanEagleSalestotalsbyMonthyear=1140&AmericanEagleYear-datedcoinssoldyear=