Are any of you guys coming across these mint errors? I addition to chips, I'm finding a lot of die cracks and struck thru/grease filled dies on state quarters. They're common but interesting.
I'm probably sounding repetitive from other replies, but this is from Philly and they use their dies to the bitter end and have amazingly poor quality control. I rarely find a Denver coin with these problems. Nice find. And yes, always finding die chips on P coins, both cents and quarters, also die cracks at the base of the quarter obverse bust. Also on the obverse at the face of the Roosevelt P dimes.
Hmmm, interesting fact @tommyc03. You would think there would be an internal friendly competition between the four mints. If you or I worked at the San Francisco, we would want to put out better produce (quality control) and have a better reputation then the other mints. If you or I were the Mint Director, and we know Philly had an on-going quality control problem, we would fire the employees or maybe rotate employees between the mints on a regular basis to eliminate the problem. But I guess we should keep in mind that it is the gov't after all! Yes, I see a lot of die chips and pimples on Roosevelt's face!
Yep, the government hard(ly) at work. I know this is not the proper context but I worked in Quality Control throughout my career in hypodermic syringes. If I let just one through, I would be on the carpet. Thankfully very few got through and like the Mint, we made billions of them a year. And also like the Mint, many processes before they left the facility. Any number of errors might be made, wrong top/bottom web, wrong control #, smeared print on barrels, skewed print, foreign matter, warped stoppers, and many other factors. I often wonder to what standards the Mint adhere to. Are they ISO certified? Probably some form of cost cutting measures in place at the Philly Mint. Who really knows...
Hmmm, very interesting! Unlike the mint, you had life/death or at the very least, the possibility of serious injury in your hands. You obviously have a better understanding and appreciation of quality control then most of us!
TJ1952 said: Fire the employees. Rotate employees between mints on a regular basis? I don't think either one is the answer. How are you going to rotate employees between mints, especially on a regular basis?
What it really boils down to is, billions of cents and hundreds of millions of quarters. With only random inspections and the possibility that inspectors might also be multi tasking other chores, the regular change outs of dies, etc., it would be unlikely to catch some of these errors. They (could) do a better job but probably don't have enough time in a day. You rarely see many posts of Kennedy Half errors these days with the exception of a possible minor die crack now and then. But then, look at the production numbers of current halves. The nickels are of a harder material and do not seem to be showing much more than some random chips now and then. And even the "die Chips" on the dimes look more like drips than regular chips.
The new quarters today are State Park Quarters, not State Quarters. Yes, they do have many die chips, grease fills and cracks, because of quality controls, are not adhered too, I believe.
