Just stumbled upon this as I was organizing and forgot I found this a few weeks ago. Not the best of shape and I know about the giant scratch on the face, but on the reverse there are 2 scratches behind "STATES" and it did not affect the letters. They are incuse and so I ruled out a die scratch. Any clues? Looks neat and sad the dime wasn't in better shape. Just really curious how this happened. Since they are obviously one smooth swipe and the letters are unaffected, I wouldn't imagine PMD or some sort of strike through. The planchet might have already been gouged, but would expect the strike would heal it up more.
That's what I was thinking, but would have thought it would heal better in the strike. The bottom gouge seems quite large. No problem if that's the consensus. Just want to know what to label it as for my reference specimens
I don't think there is enough metal in that area to make it go away in the minting process. It's a nice example and a good find. Wait for others to give their input before labeling it.
The die was damaged with the gouge I believe. Remember the bottom portion of the field on the coin is the top part of the die, and since the gouge did not go deep enough to damage the recessed and deep portion of the letter, when struck on the coin, the coin structures such as the lettering is mostly ok, except for a small area at the field of the coin. IMO, Jim
Thanks for the response desertgem. I think I see what you are saying. Gouge on the planchet was shallow enough that when struck, the metal pushed into the letters were able to heal itself except for the contact area on the E and S. Deeper and there was a possibility the letters could have been more affected. Did I understand correctly?
I did not think the gouge was on the planchet, but on the surface of the die. Since its hard to tell from straight on photos and it is your coin, is the gouge portion on the coin physically depressed ( gouge on planchet) or raised ( gouge on the die). I looked at the back of the E and S where the gouge touched , and it appeared to be raised. Jim
It looks depressed to me. Here's hopefully a better picture. Light is coming from the top and the southern part of the gouge reflects it, whereas the other side of the gouge begins to shadow like the bottom of the letters.
I'm going with die damage. Mainly due to how the lower east anomaly rides up on the E. Very short,But it does continue on the E.
