In a world that prizes perfection, Joe Au-Franz looks for flaws. He keeps an eye out for cracks, chips, misalignments, missing or added elements and other mistakes on coins that sometimes occur during the minting process.

“Coins with such irregularities are not only interesting, they’re valuable,” said Au-Franz, president of the Honolulu Coin Club and an avid coin collector for 45 years. “Depending on their condition and rarity, they could be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Of the 700-plus coins in his collection, more than half are anomalies in various denominations. He could fetch $1,500 each for his Hawaii State Quarters with “extra islands,” which he considers his greatest finds.

The coins were released on Nov. 3, 2008, as part of the U.S. Mint’s 10-year 50 State Quarters Program launched in 1999. Each quarter was minted for about 10 weeks and will never be produced again. The obverse (front) of the coins displays the usual image of George Washington; each state’s unique design is on the reverse (back).

King Kamehameha the Great, the eight major islands and the motto “Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono” (“The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness”) appear on Hawaii’s quarter. Au-Franz surmises an errant tool chipped the coin’s die, creating “extra islands” below Oahu and Molokai.

“Only 10 of those quarters have been found, and I have them all,” he said. “That’s mind-boggling considering there are probably thousands of them in circulation now. Unless they’re collectors, people don’t usually look closely at money.”

Au-Franz’s “tsunami” Hawaii quarters show big “waves” crashing on the southeastern coast of Hawaii island. “The obverse die hit the reverse die and imparted some of Washington’s hair on it,” he said. “I found 151 of those coins, and another local collector found 250. They’re worth $75 to $300 apiece, depending on the grade.”

More than 65 dealers and collectors from Hawaii and the mainland will be displaying and selling coins, currency, stamps, bullion, postcards, vintage jewelry, Hawaiiana and other collectibles at the 53rd annual Coin Show sponsored by the Hawaii State Numismatic Association, the umbrella organization for Hawaii’s three coin clubs.

One hundred one-dollar bills stamped with “HSNA” are currently circulating on Oahu. The first person to present one of those bills at the door will receive a $500 gift certificate to use at the show, the second person will receive a $200 certificate and the next three people will receive $100 certificates.

The HSNA dollars are reminiscent of the “overprint currency” used in Hawaii after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Military leaders thought if enemy forces ever successfully invaded Hawaii, they would have access to a large amount of U.S. cash. To prevent that from happening, all “regular” bills in Hawaii were burned, and the overprint currency was used from June 1942 to the end of martial law in October 1944.

“Those bills have brown treasury seals and numbers and the word HAWAII in large letters on the back and in small letters near the side borders on the front,” Au-Franz said. “The idea was if the money fell into enemy hands, it could be quickly identified and deemed worthless. Jeremy Uota, author of the Hawaii Overprint Currency Catalog, will be at the show to discuss this unique currency from World War II.”

“Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary Commemoration” is the theme of this year’s Coin Show, and exhibits revolving around that will be on view. Attendees will also be able to learn about metal detecting, bring coins for evaluation and receive tips from numismatics experts.

“Coin collecting is fun and educational,” Au-Franz said. “Imagine — you can learn about history, geography, math and politics just by examining the money in your wallet!”

DID YOU KNOW

>> On April 2, 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, which created the U.S. Mint and authorized construction of a Mint building in Philadelphia, then the nation’s capital.

>> The U.S. Mint now operates six facilities: its headquarters in Washington, D.C.; production facilities in Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point, N.Y.; and the bullion depository at Fort Knox, Ky.

>> The first documented suggestion that God be recognized on U.S. money was a letter addressed to Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase from the Rev. M.R. Watkinson, a minister in Ridleyville, Pa., in 1861. “In God We Trust” first appeared on a two-cent coin three years later. When “In God We Trust” was adopted as the national motto in 1956, it was required on all U.S. coins and currency.

>> The only women honored on a circulating coin are Sacagawea and Susan B. Anthony (both on the dollar) and Helen Keller (on the Alabama quarter, minted in 2003 during the 50 State Quarters program).

Sources: usmint.gov and treasury.gov

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.