I have a dropped letter quarter (the G from God is to the left of the mintmark, just about exactly 90 degrees)
Great high res picture, Kasia. This one's got me. If it were PMD, I'd expect the dropped G to be incused...but the image, even when blown up and enhanced, makes it look raised. Can you confirm this? I'm not convinced it's a strike error however either...the dropped G appears to be a different font. Take a look. First G is the "normal" G from "GOD", second is the 'dropped" G, rotated. Both have been doubled in size, and had the contrast and brightness adjusted to increase visibility of the details of the font. First G has no serif on the "upward" leg, coming up from bottom...second (dropped) G does, as you see the leg pointing to the left, toward the interior of the G. Also, the "tail" at the top, coming down pointing at the upward leg, appears longer on the dropped G than on the "normal" one. Going to follow the diagnostics on this one closely.
Could be a dropped letter. Is it incused? Often there is some strike weakness around the letter dropped (die still partially filled), which I don't see here. But not always. Are the size and font consistent? A dropped letter can be a little bigger from squishing during the strike but of course can be no smaller. Magnified images would help. Lance.
Despite the slight difference in thickness and shape, it still could be a dropped element. Isn't it possible that this was the portion of the debris-filled die that was compacted the most? As the striking process continued from planchet to planchet, bits and pieces along the outer edges broke away, and when the main body of the element finally dropped, this is what was left. I'm wondering if you placed an overlay of the dropped element over the letter if it wouldn't lie fully within the shape of the letter. Chris
Let's find out. Green tint is "Dropped" G on top of red tinted "normal" G... It absolutely does fall very precisely in the "correct" G. The upward leg is narrower on the dropped G (either actually narrower, or as a trick of the light) so the "serif" fits within the "correct" G quite nicely.
New photos Ok, so I have pics coming (11, will post a couple replys to get them in) from different angles from my digital photo microscope. I believe the dropped letter to only be slightly incused, but am really not able to tell, it's so slight in my opinion, but I can't see it as being raised at all. But you can decide for yourselves, and I hope to hear your opinions. BTW, as you will be able to see, the dropped letter stops at the device, which I would not expect if it was some sort of fancy PMD. Also, some of the photos seem to be exactly the same, but most have slight differences as to where the picture was focused.
Your latest photos show it so much better than the first set. All it really needed was to rotate it a little in the light to get the true impression. In my mind, it is a dropped element. What is it worth? It depends on who is interested in it. If there is more than one "shark" swimming in the waters, you might just get a feeding frenzy. Chris
That is truly an intriguing coin indeed, I've never seen this before. The new photos show that "G" perfectly.. look forward to more discussion with this one~
