Numismatic Guaranty Corporation® (NGC®) has identified five 2014 Great Smoky Mountains Five-Ounce Specimen coins with a significant mint error: they are missing the “P” mintmark.
Issued since 2000, the America the Beautiful Quarters series honors America’s national parks, forests and other federally recognized sites. Each US state and territory gets one site recognized, and five sites are honored on quarters each year.
Besides the quarters, the United States Mint also issues five-ounce silver America the Beautiful Quarters, which feature the same designs and 25-cent denomination. There are two versions of these five-ounce issues: a Mint State version, with a reflective finish and no mintmark, and a Specimen version with a “vapor-blasted” matte finish and a “P” mintmark. The Mint State versions are sold through US Mint Authorized Purchasers, while the Specimen versions are sold directly to consumers by the US Mint.
A sharp-eyed NGC grader was surprised to find four 2014 Great Smoky Mountains Five-Ounce Specimen coins that were missing the “P” mintmark; they were submitted by Modern Coin Mart, an NGC-Authorized Dealer, as part of a larger group of Great Smoky Mountains Five-Ounce Specimen coins.
All of the coins had arrived at NGC in the standard US Mint packaging for the Specimen issues and the error was unnoticed until the first NGC grader examined the coins. A fifth example was discovered in a separate submission.
Camire believes the error happened when coins intended to be sold as Mint State versions (and therefore without the “P” mintmark) were accidentally mixed with coins designated to be vapor-blasted, which happens after the coins are struck. The vapor-blasted, missing mintmark coins were then individually packaged along with the other Specimen issues and sold by the US Mint. It is not known how many of these errors were released, or if others await discovery.
The missing mintmark coins have been attributed as 2014 No “P” with the Mint Error designation on the NGC certification label.
NGC recognizes most major mint errors under its Mint Error service tier.
I just won one of these 2014 No “P” Great Smoky Mtns. 5 oz ATB (NGC SP69) coins at auction from Heritage Auctions on Oct. 10, 2022; Auction # 60281; Lot # 93100 for $3,600 with Buyers Premium. This coin was one of the four originally submitted to NGC, by MCM, for certification in 2018. The alleged 5th coin submitted to NGC apparently was a resubmission for re-labeling. There is one coin certified by PCGS in SP64, which was discovered by APMEX. These No “P” coins should be given a separate listing category, from the base issue, in all Price Guides, Census Reports, etc.