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
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 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
