This is one of those questions that if you ask 10 people, you'll get 10 different answers....i'd be interested in seeing the consensus here...whats the difference between a die chip and a die gouge?
A chip is usually a small fragment of metal missing from the die, leaving a raised blob on the coin, where as a gouge is from tooling or over zealous polishing from a mint worker. Also leaving a raised area on the the coin, only man made.
My take would be a chip would be where a small part of the coin fell away due to the dies striking the coin perhaps the wrong way or minor planchet flaw a gouge would be where a part of the collar, sharp feature on a die or other part of the press dug into the coin before, during or after striking the coin. Also gouges could be mishandling by mint enployees.
bigjpst, that is also what I was thinking. dannic, technically I think a die chip or gouge is an error on the die itself, not an error made when the die strikes an individual coin. A die chip should actually be a raised area on the coin, not a hole. However, I for one could not tell the difference between a chip and a gouge by sight...
Chips usually appear near weak areas of a die, between letters or near overly detailed areas of the design, where as you will see gouges in the fields(which are the exposed area of the dies.) and will sometimes be in groups that look like heavy sanding lines. If you go to vamworld.com and look at the Morgan dollar Vams, you will see tons of die polish lines and gouges. They often look like deep scratches (only raised.) Die chips are usually blobs.
dannic - I think you're mixing things up here. A die chip and a die gouge are both things that happen to the die itself. Both chips and gouges result in raised areas on the coin because both are holes/depressions on the die. What you are talking about are chips and gouges to the coin that occur after the coin has been struck. Both of these result in holes/depressions on the coin.
