Impossible mint mark

I knpw it is in bad taste to discuss a coin that is in an active auction. I also know that what I am seeing has absolutely no chance of being real. Yet, if you look closely under the last "E" in DIME on the reverse of this PCGS 35 1857 I Repeat 1857 Dime. There is a CC, Carson City mintmark and it doesn't look pmd. James

 

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I see an 8 on its side. Or maybe Dumbo.

I think this is a case of pareidolia, not a clumsy fake with an impossible mintmark that somehow slipped by both PCGS and Great Collections.

 

I definitely see what you're talking about, and yeah it looks like a CC

 

For those who may not see it

 

I can kind of see the sideways 8, too, but either way it's very strange

 

I in no way claim it is an actual CC mintmark. I just can't unsee what i see. James

 

I see the upper half of an "S" wrapped around the top left of the D in Dime. I believe if you look enough at things like this you begin to see all sorts of things.

 

It may be from a partly clogged letter or digit that dropped. Similar to a dropped letter error:
https://www.numismaticnews.net/archive/error-finds-include-dropped-letter

It does look to me like an 8 turned sideways but it's not large enough to be a clog that dropped from the 8 in the date. Unless some of it got lost while being struck into the planchet?

Or it could be Babe Ruth signaling for two hamburgers?

 

Impossible is your correct take on it. Carson City didn't begin operations until 1870 and construction of the building didn't even start until 1866. The "CC" is way too small regardless.

 

I think the person who was looking at it like some sort of an "8" might have the most likely reasonable answer. The obvious 8 to look at would be the one from the date but of course it takes quite a few contortions to make some sort of clash mark out of it. james

 

I took some time to compare some actual dimes to the coin pictured. It is unavoidable for the mind to try and compose something but I think there are a couple of areas where Liberty's gown and the rock meet that could provide a potential matching clash mark. In any event. That answer makes way more sense than any answer that would get the wild haired guy from "Ancient Aliens" involved. James

 

Or guy/gals.... Just a case of Pareidolia.

 

I'll agree to disagree, could be yes could be no, or perhaps or not. Could also be maybe or maybe not, you decide okay, ok.

 

I see the CC but since that's not the mm position, it's just a coincidence.
As for Babe Ruth's called shot, they were razzing him all game and he was really pointing at the pitcher. Of course after he hit a HR to center, it became "the called shot". I even heard a tape of him describing it at Cooperstown, but it is really a created myth it didn't actually happen the way people think.

 

@Michael K . I really didn't think anyone was going to actually think I was supporting the idea this is an actual mintmark. Sorry, but that would be like claiming you have an 1804 Abraham Lincoln campaign button or a 1932 signed basketball by Micheal Jordan. NO NO NO.
I do think it is a clash mark of some sorts. I do think it is amazing how close it looks to an errant CC mintmark. The odds of that have to be amazing.
To those who don't or refuse to note the similarity to a pair of CC marks. I am afraid you either have a sense of humor deficiency or are unusually afraid of how rediculous life can be. James

 

My bad. The introductory comment about "bad taste to discuss a coin that is in an active auction" made me think you suspected that this was a fake, with a clumsy CC partially struck into the die. (We've seen fake CC coins from dates before and after the mint was in operation.)

 

Definitely not a CC mint mark. I’m thinking, just thinking that it’s what remains of a die clash from the date. The 1 and the 57 were destroyed when the die stuck the reverse and raised the “E” in Dime and the leaves under the “E”. The 8 landed in the field and remained. Just an idea or notion of a possibility.

Just a note: There is only one “E” in DIME. LOL

 

It's way too small to be the 8 from the date, and how would that clash near the center of the reverse anyway? I don't see anything on the obverse that's going to make that "CC" from a clash. We're taking this way too seriously. It's some interesting pareidolia from a couple semi-circular marks and that's all. There is part of a third "C" just to the right, so is it the famous CCC mint? There are other circular marks/depressions next to the last A in America, etc. Whew, that's enough from me.

 

I’m only offering one possibility that hasn’t been discussed and I did it after a long drive.

 

I thought about a clash, but then wouldn't it be reversed?