Garrett Users Forum

Is this a Mint error, mistrike, or what? Have any of you come across a silver SAC? Coin on the left is the silver one.

Bill

I have one that not gold but i don't think it sliver just looks that way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2008 09:54PM by ohio fred.

I doubt mine is silver. It doesn't show in the lousy pic but it really shines and looks like silver. Maybe the cheap gold paint wore off. But it hasn't been in circulation much as it's in to good of shape.

Bill.

I tried to clean it but i think now it is gold color

Bill,

Congrats. on your find. Someone was telling me just the other day that some of those were errors, partially and completely unplated by mistake. They're supposed to weigh 8.1 grams when correct. I wonder if yours weighs slightly less.

Richard

Thats really weird Bill because they are supposed to be made from manganese, copper and brass...so they shouldnt be a silver color at all. Unless the plating only is the before mentioned metals. I found one in Orlando Florida a few years ago.

Good find either way!
Alan

either way its a very nice coin

I have found references to silver plated SAC's, Bill, mostly for the jewelry trade and spurious commemorative markets. There were also problems with the early issues exhibiting severe fading and/or spotting, with several experimental methods used to resolve the problem. Officially, no SAC dollars have been made of steel. If it looks more like faded out gold than true silver, I'd suggest it was one of those early problem coins. I've seen some pretty faded out SAC's, myself.

Here's a tidbit for you - the SAC dollar, indeed any American dollar coin, is highly regarded in Ecuador, of all places. It seems the US Dollar became legal tender in Ecuador, as of March 13, 2000, replacing the previous issue of the Ecuadorian "sucre" (which means 'sugar' in Spanish). This move was called the Ecuadorian Dollarization, and while the country still releases its own centavo coins, American dollar coins are both circulated widely and quickly snatched up there!

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David...... "DETECTO, ERGO SUM"

BLOG: "Key Thoughts" UPDATED WEEKLY

Whatever you do, do it with enthusiasm. At least ACT like you mean it.

"Life is tough; it's even tougher if you're stupid" - John Wayne.

Hi Bill, where did you find this beauty and how deep it was?

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X-Terra 70 & ACe 250

As I recall it was in a soccer field about two inches down.

Bill

Yeah this one is a 2000 D and I have a bunch of those but they are all gold. This one shows no sign of having been gold then fading. It looks like it was struck this way and although it doesn't show in the scanner pic it really glistens, almost a mirror finish.

Bill.

Unless you find one fresh dropped they are all tarnished or so corroded you can't tell what they are. IF yours were like mine the more you clean it the silvery it becomes. Mine shines just like polished silver.

Bill

I'll weigh mine and check it out. I wouldn't think the plating would add that much weight to it.

Bill

Yeah this one is like polished silver. I may check with the Mint and see if they coined any errors.

Bill

According to what I can find, they arent plated "gold" by the Mint, at all. They are an amalgam of"

88.5% Cu
6% Zn
3.5% Mn
2% Ni

I havent found any reference to a steel planchet SAC dollar. There were some few that were mis-struck on Maryland quarter planchets and they are worth far more than a dollar. Those have sold for $3500! This has also occured with one MA and one KY quarter. They are obvious offset strikes though, and yours doesn't appear to be one.
There were also some SAC's struck on clad Susan B. Anthony planchets, of which about 10 are known to exist.
There was a mint error referred to as the SAC "not so golden" Dollar, too. Although, that one still looks gold - just "not so golden," thus the name.
And if you rub a common SAC, even go so far as to polish it, they end up looking silvery.
But none of this steel planchet, clad mistrike or polished out SAC stuff accounts for a coin having lain in the ground at 2" and still coming out silvery.

If it is silver, then it is plated or a counterfeit.
Better check with some REAL experts to be sure, Bill. You may have a one of a kind fortune-maker.

Tidbit #2. The SAC dollar has been given approval for continued minting by Congress. Thanks to a bill which has just passed both houses of Congress. H.R. 2358, known as the "Native American $1 Coin Act," the Secretary of the Treasury (and by extension, the U.S. Mint) are required to "mint and issue coins in commemoration of Native Americans." These new Sacagawea Dollars are required to comprise no less than 20% of the Dollar coins issued in a given year.

No reverse is stipulated, so it is expected that there will be new reverse designs, as well. Some ideas that have been suggested are:

Creation of the Cherokee written language
Existence of the Iroquois Confederacy
Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag
The Pueblo Revolt
Olympic Champion Jim Thorpe
General Ely S. Parker, who headed the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Navajo "code talkers"

The Native American $1 Coin Act also stipulates that the Sacagawea Dollar will get edge incused lettering, to include the following inscriptions: date of issuance, E Pluribus Unum, and In God We Trust.

So, SACKIES's will continue to be minted alongside the Presidential dollar, albeit in limited numbers.

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David...... "DETECTO, ERGO SUM"

BLOG: "Key Thoughts" UPDATED WEEKLY

Whatever you do, do it with enthusiasm. At least ACT like you mean it.

"Life is tough; it's even tougher if you're stupid" - John Wayne.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2008 08:04AM by dahut.