Presidential Dollar - George Washington

The George Washington Presidential Dollar was the inaugural release in the United States Mint's Presidential $1 Coin Program, which began issuing dollar coins honoring deceased U.S. presidents in the order they served, starting in 2007. As the very first coin of the series, it attracted significant attention, both for its historical significance and for a notable minting error involving missing edge lettering.

The coin's gold-colored appearance comes from its manganese brass clad composition, similar to the Sacagawea dollar it succeeded on circulating dollar coin production lines, and it introduced the novel feature of incused edge lettering carrying the date, mintmark, and mottos rather than printing them on the coin's face.

Congress passed the Presidential $1 Coin Act in 2005, authorizing the Mint to issue a series of circulating dollar coins honoring former presidents, four per year, in the order they held office, beginning with George Washington. The program aimed to generate public interest in dollar coins, which had struggled to gain widespread circulation acceptance since the Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea dollar introductions.

Washington's coin was released in February 2007 and quickly became notable when a number of coins from the Philadelphia mint were discovered without the edge lettering that was supposed to carry the date, mint mark, and the mottos E PLURIBUS UNUM and IN GOD WE TRUST. Because the missing edge lettering meant these particular coins lacked any reference to God, the error coins were nicknamed "Godless Dollars" by collectors and the media, sparking notable public and press attention.

Doubled-edge-lettering varieties, where the edge text appears twice or overlapping, were also discovered on some Washington dollars, adding further interest for error-variety collectors during the series' debut year.

The obverse depicts a portrait of George Washington facing right, with the inscriptions GEORGE WASHINGTON, IN GOD WE TRUST (in early releases moved to the edge), and the years he served as president, 1789-1797. Later, after public complaints about missing mottos, the design was modified. The reverse shows the Statue of Liberty with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the denomination $1, a common reverse design used throughout the first years of the Presidential Dollar series.

A distinguishing feature of the series is that the date, mint mark, and the mottos E PLURIBUS UNUM and IN GOD WE TRUST are incused into the edge of the coin rather than printed on its obverse or reverse faces, a departure from typical U.S. coinage. The coin is golden in color due to its manganese brass clad composition over a pure copper core, and it is the same 26.5mm diameter and general weight as the earlier Sacagawea dollar.

To identify a "Godless Dollar" error, examine the edge closely under good light: a genuine error piece will show a smooth, blank edge with no lettering at all, rather than the usual incused text; doubled-lettering varieties instead show overlapping or doubled edge inscriptions.

Standard circulation-strike Washington Presidential Dollars are common and generally trade close to face value or a small collector premium in typical condition. The "Godless Dollar" edge-lettering error coins, however, became a notable modern rarity story, with clearly authenticated examples selling for hundreds of dollars, particularly in uncirculated condition, though values have moderated somewhat as more examples were identified and the novelty wore off.

Doubled-edge-lettering varieties also carry a collector premium over normal coins, though generally less than the missing-lettering error. As with all modern error coins, third-party certification is important for buyers seeking assurance that an edge-lettering variety is genuine rather than a coin that simply had its edge lettering worn away or altered.