Madison, WI News Channel 3 charges limpingly into 2006 with year-old breaking news about misprints on the Wisconsin state quarter:

Misprinted State Quarters Worth A Mint? Quarters With Extra Leaf Worth More Than $50 Each

POSTED: 7:49 pm CST January 20, 2006
UPDATED: 8:21 pm CST January 20, 2006

When you hear this news, you're almost certainly going to break open your piggy bank to look for a certain quarter.

The talk among coin collectors is that there is a tiny mistake on some but not all Wisconsin state quarters. That makes this 25-cent coin worth more than two bits.

A normal Wisconsin quarter features a cow, a block of cheese, and an ear of corn. But during the minting of the 2004 D-series, an extra leaf appeared on the bottom left side of the corn. A low leaf and a high leaf are extremely rare.

The U.S. Treasury Department says the bulk of these quarters was released in Ohio and Arizona.

If you find one of 50,000 in circulation, it'll have a little bit of wear on it. It's probably worth around $50.

Wisconsin quarters with the extra leaf are fetching hundreds of dollars on eBay.

Embarassingly enough (for them), this news was "hot" when we originally covered it, back in February 2005 - almost one full year ago!

See our full February 2005 quarter coverage, including close-up photos of the printing flaw, by clicking here

And if any News 3 staff is reading, I have a hot tip for you - **MUST CREDIT DUMMOCRATS** I have it on excellent authority that George W. Bush defeated John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.

You heard it here first.