Discovered on Decemeber 11, 2004 by Mr. Bob Ford in Tuscon, AZ. Bob had originally created 100 Special Bob Ford Discovery sets graded by NGC. These sets are graded in MS67 to MS64 in special NGC 3 piece slabs, they all had contained an original laminated COA (or Certificate of Authenticity) with each set. The US Mint Denver mint was the only US mint which these varieties came from. There tends to be disagreements from coin error professionals as to how these die varieties were created in such a unique fashion with such precise placement of the extra leafs. The majority seem to agree that this was and inside job by a couple of mint employees, strangely enough back in 2003, the US MInt had decided to purchase and use waffling machines to destroy any reject batches of coins, etc. and for some strange reason the had decide to release 2 ballistic bags of Wisconsin variety errors mixed in with regular struck coins. My relatives were lucky enough to have lived near Tucson at the time spoke about the crazy times people had looking for rolls at all major banks in Tucson. Almost all of the Wisconsin variety errors could only be found in Tuscon, AZ and other locations near the San Antonio, TX and surrounding areas. As we speak, almost all the uncirculated extra high and low varieties coins have already been found and submitted to NGC & PCGS grading services. There still maybe a few coins floating around but the vast majority of raw coins sold now are basically AU (About Uncirculated) grade coins, meaning that you will never obtain an MS grade from NGC or PCGS due to the circulated condition of them.

We have sold many boxes of Wisconsin-Denver Mint coins throughout the first 3 years after the major discovery and know that the probability of finding more error coins is highly unlikely after watching population reports and talking with numerous individual buyers and sellers throughout. As far as total populations found … estimates are as follows as of 1/1/08: NGC 9,400 / PCGS 5,800 = 15,200 total. As you can see, NGC has graded almost twice the amount of these variety coins then PCGS has so far. There are some sellers who also mislead the quality of PCGS slabbed coins stating that PCGS is 1,2 or even 3 grades better than NGC’s … and that’s not totally true! Actually, our team and other individuals have first-hand knowledge of coins submitted by various grading companies at various time frames throughout. Most coins in MS 65, 66 and even 67 graded are the relatively the same as we checked slabs closely! Although, give different time frames of submission of both NGC and PCGS, it seems that PCGS tended to grade one step lower. Also, keep in mind that PCGS did not recognize the Wisconsin varieties for a while and did not allow grading of these variety attributions until later dates. My opinion is that most PCGS MS64 and 65’s are not equal to NGC MS65 or MS66’s at all times. Although, you must keep in mind that ALL professional grading companies due switch in graders and finalizers from time to time and GRADING coins is relied upon bias opinions and ANA grading standards. With that said … basically it comes down to the actual coin inside the slab(s) or multi-holders and NOT the grading companies reputation, etc. So please be very careful buying RAW ungraded coins! I’m sure someday maybe the US Mint just might reveal the Wisconsin mystery to us once and for all!