playpossum if all of the damaged looking areas are truly indented in then there is only one possible thing that I can think of to do this, it may be struck thru heavy greased dies which is common on the state quarter series. the larger incuse looking area at 3o'clock is too larg and deep for this so it would have to be a stuck thru area if not glue. the broken die area you mentioned is not what happened here. I found a nickel still sealed in a mint set that had a indentation in it from a large ring setting that showed the perfect shape of the stone . I sold it on ebay around 5 years ago for around 60.00 some of you members may have saw it. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you but this looks so much like glue , maybe it's just your photos making it look this way.
I'm not confident or wealthy enough to make a wager. I can't help but see what looks like glue on the coin My guess is that part of what you see is an error, and part of it is not. I will await Jody's expert opinion on the coin. I can't help but see what looks like some form of epoxy or glue on pictures 2 and 3 in post 8 at about the 1-2 o'clock, and yes, I know how many times you have said it isn't. I guess we will find out what it is when Jody gets it. Wait...you said your theory is that the coin was struck through a part of the die. If that was so, wouldn't we see 2 anomalies...a raised die chip somewhere else on the coin, as well as the struck through? In your theory, a piece of the die breaks off. That would leave a cavity in the die elsewhere on the design, and we would see a die break and a struck through...I see a potential struck through, but no die break that would indicate where the piece of the die that broke off came from. Are you saying that the area where the struck through occurred is also the same place that the die broke off? For some reason I can't see that happening without the evidence of die cracks or some sort of raised anomaly around the area... For comparison, here is are 2 pages about offset die breaks, something you were getting at in an earlier post, regarding the die breaking, but the piece of the die still remaining attached. http://www.error-ref.com/ret-cuds-horizontal-offset.html http://www.error-ref.com/ret-cuds-vert-displacement.html Notice again that these anomalies are raised on the coin, not incuse. I certainly have not heard of a struck through die break before, so I cannot guarantee that such an error exists.
The description in the first link is close but not exact. I am only trying to reconstruct a car crash in my head. It makes sense to me, especially since the die's were probably forged in China (I dont believe we even have an operating steel mill in this country anymore). If there is any varience in the alloy mixture, too much oxygen, not enough titanium, It could have a major impact (so to speak) on the die's preformance. No two breaks are alike. I wouldnt discount any possibility in a catostrophic die failure. The pieces must fall out, or shift enough to create the cud. There is actually a a fine raised ridge that is noticable in the pics (that is the spot between 1&2 o'clock that everyone see's glue peeling up) I'm sure Jody's pics will reveal this. But, keep in mind, I'm no geneious. I, like everyone else, am just looking for a logical explanation! Heck, I used to think John Cougar Meloncamp was a place to send special kids for the summer!
Psh! Tell that to my Dad, who has been working at facility 8 on this map for 30+ years. http://www.ussteel.com/uss/portal/home/aboutus/facilities Here are just a few more: http://www.uprr.com/customers/ind-prod/attachments/metals/minimillmap.pdf Classic! Hope that was intentional.
It's Halloween anything may go wrong . Happy Halloween everyone and don't let the coin gobblings get your coins.
Cat??? That's my pet Possum! We call him Squirrel! I think ya'll need to lay off the glue.......if you know what I mean!
This is a pic of a typical hardened machine spring. Notice the end, it is flat on one side, convex on the other, designed to sit flush for even pressure. This is what I suspect started the damage. It matches well with the incuse area at 3:00. Look at the lower part of the hole, it is jagged like a piece of broken metal. Do the presses or any other part of the Mint's production line have these? I'd say odd are pretty good they do!
I would still think a spiraling shape would be visible if it was a spring, as the metal in the spring is coiled around... Here is a coin that was struck through a spring...with that amount of pressure, it would make sense that the spring would be more struck IN the coin and remain there than struck through. http://hermes.csd.net/~coneca/image/ErrorscopeVol22No3MayJune2013Color600.jpg
The spring in your pic is not hardened, it bent to form into the coin's surface and stayed. A hardened spring like the one I posted will shatter into fragments. I'm not saying the entire spring made the mark, just a fragmented piece of the end of it. It was already that size when it was struck. The spring had broken off of the machine, probably shattering into a few fragments somewhere else, and this fragment made it into the press. It was either that or a piece of elbow macaronni!