Would Love to Learn a Bit More About Shattered Dies

Its been a while since I posted something of my own, so here goes. I set this 1967 Washington quarter aside while roll hunting a while back and wanted to get the community's thoughts on the die state.

The marks across the surface are raised rather than incuse (as I tried to capture with side-angled photos), which leads me away from standard post-mint damage, but I'm trying to determine if this crosses the threshold into a true shattered die or if it's just severe die cracking/erosion- or even just unusual PMD.

Thoughts?

 

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Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a Washington quarter so advanced. Usually they replace them long before this happens - or it happened very suddenly. It's also fairly unusual to see both sides shattered at the same time, but I guess it's possible.

If my response wasn't enough... yeah, this absolutely qualifies for a near-terminal shattered die. Those dies didn't strike much more after that!

 

Good to see you posting AtG.

 

It does look unusual, no?
Where's a good coin error expert when you need one?
I'm on the fence about this one.
Rolling Stones....

 

have you tried soaking this in acetone? Glue was my first thought as well.

 

I was thinking maybe it was subjected to an acidic solution. Like an Acid.

 

I'll be honest, Jeff, the peninsula you're talking about was the single most unusual piece of this puzzle. However... the entire rest of the coin looks legit. I don't see anything out of place with those die breaks. A die crack/break is going to follow the path of least resistance regarding the pre-existing flaws or stress in the die. There is no way to predict what shape that will take.

Dies can behave very strangely when they are on the verge of failure, and I attributed the peninsula to a very thick break/cud. Those don't form in straight lines. They are always jaggedy and unpredictable. Given the rest of the coin, I just decided it was an unusual presentation.

In terms of acid/corrosion through a cracked lacquer layer - what I'm seeing from the surfaces does not indicate that. To have that significant of a plane-change due to acid erosion, you'd see evidence of loss of detail, pitting, or other strange results. The entire coin has a uniform appearance that makes me think it's natural.

While I realize that I initially flagged that as one of my concerns, I realized that was because I'm used to early 19th century coinage where one die might be changed out while the other was retained if it was good for service. This led to marriages and remarriages of dies as they were replaced and older dies were used.

In the mid to late 1900's, it was more common to use a pair of dies until they were no longer fit, and then replace them both. Two hypotheses: 1. These dies were produced at the same time from flawed steel and thus failed at roughly the same time. 2. These dies both struck some foreign material (from opposite sides), or had a mechanical error that caused them to fail at roughly the same time.

Either way, both dies would have been replaced at the same time.

 

You are absolutely correct to question the possibility of some form of adhesive, however, I ruled this out with the soak and prod method prior to posting.

Thank you for your insights, @physics-fan3.14

 

That is fascinating. Maybe some kind of clad layer lamination error then?

 

No. A lamination would appear as missing or peeling metal. There is no metal missing. These are die breaks.

 

So many odd shaped blobs out floating by themselves. Above IN and crossing over into the rim near T for example. I have a hard time imagining these being caused by die breaks. It's like something melted and splattered on it. How bizarre.

 

Bad acid at the concert man! Bad acid.

 

Very interesting!

 

Looks like some kind of chemical damage.