Good day everyone! While sorting a pile of my pesetas I've found this one. My question - is it a die crack right below die clash mark or die clash mark is simply a bit deeper in that place? Also I do not know if it is a frequent mint error on pesetas, so if you can tell me an estimate value it would be very kind of you.
The coin has both a strong clash and a strong die crack but I can't tell what area you are referring to.
Die crack - rev, starting at the edge, going between D and E letters in "G.DE" and to the right. Die clash - both obv and rev in the upper area. I have my doubts because what is supposed to be die crack line goes then through Franco's chin and neck and ends at letter A in "FRANCISCO"; but it has very sudden transition from a sharp line to barely noticeable one. I beg your pardon if I express my thoughts oddly, English is not my native language.
Actually you express yourself rather well. From what I see the dies are in what is called coin alignment (the two sides are upside down in relation to each other.) At one time the dies set in the press improperly and the die faces were not parallel to each other. The dies then clashed severely. Since the faces were not parallel the clash is only present at the top of the reverse and the bottom of the obverse. Also since the dies were closer together there the pressure was much higher than normal causing the obverse die to crack severely from the impact. The crack does begin at the rim going between DE as you mention and fades away by the A in Francisco. This just means that the piece of the die did not break away completely and is still holding together there from the A to the edge. (But it may not have lasted much longer. I would not be surprised if that chunk of the die broke off completely within just a few more cycles of the press.)
Conder101, thank you very much for your explanation! As I do not collect Spanish coins, at first I wanted to sell this one, but now I think I'd rather add it to my collection as an interesting example of mint made irregularities. One question that still bothers me is rarity of such an error. I've bought about 300 pesetas (they've cost $0.03 each, so I couldn't resist such tempting offer) but there was this one single peseta with mint error (even combination of mint errors). So, how do you think, is it common, or not?
It is probably fairly rare, but not especially valuable. I say it is probably rare because I doubt the die would have survived for long with that crack, and it is noticeable enough that the press operator probably retired the die shortly after the clash/crack happened. Now if the crack did continue to the rim and that chunk of the die broke off and fell away it would be a lot more valuable.
