PHILADELPHIA - Frank Wallis' rare find earned him a mint.
A gold coin he found that features the front of a George Washington quarter and the back of the new Sacagawea dollar coin was auctioned for $29,900.
Dwight Manley, 34, a Newport Beach, Calif., coin dealer and sports agent, made the winning bid Wednesday at the American Numismatic Association's World's Fair of Money.
Wallis, a Mountain Home, Ark., newspaperman, found the coin in May in a roll of new golden dollars he bought at a bank.
''I'm happy with the price. I paid a dollar for it,'' Wallis said.
Only four such misprinted coins are known to have been sent into circulation; Wallis' was the first to be reported. Two of the other three were auctioned previously, one selling for $31,000 and the other for $41,395.
Coin dealers said uncertainty over how many more might show up in circulation have kept the prices lower than they might have been otherwise.
The error is believed to be the first of its kind in the 208-year history of the U.S. Mint.
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On the Net:
U.S. Mint: http://www.usmint.gov
American Numismatic Association: http://www.money.org
Bowers and Merena auctions: http://www.bowersandmerena.com
Coin World magazine: http://www.coinworld.com
