I was merrily running through a box of quarters looking for another “W” mintmark when THIS caught my eye. I freely admit I don’t really know what I am seeing here but I’m sure the answer will ultimately be placed on the dreaded POST MINT DAMAGE. I’m thinking about a tattoo that says that so go ahead and slap me to the ground. What’s the story with this mintmark?
The mintmark was hit by another coin or something hard enough to make that mark. It's damaged so spend it.
if you look closely at the *entire* surface, you'll see scratches, dings, scraps all over the place. Over the flat fields, over the bust, even all over the date, and mint mark, etc.
@Chip Kirkpatrick you'll get the hang of it at some point. You've already picked up up one good trait. Being skeptical. There are so many ways for coins to become damaged but only limited ways for errors to occur at the mint Keep trying to learn the minting process. It takes time.
Ok here’s my question. That is a tiny tiny part of the coin yet it was apparently hit hard enough to squash and damage the mintmark without causing similar damage on other parts of the coin. I mean I accept the other damage was probably damaged in a similar fashion but this looks like other doubled mintmarks that appear to be accepted as valid and yet it’s not. So confusing. My head hurts.
First of all, the *ENTIRE*, yes the *ENTIRE* coin has hits, scraps, dings all over it. Please look closely at the entire coin. Do you see this damage across the entire coin? Now the "P" mintmark happens to be the Smallest design on the coin. The smallest. What happens when a Pickup Truck hits a Mini Cooper? Both may have the same amount of damage but it will be much more evident on the little car. There's also damage on the G, O, E, T, U, T, 1, 6, and all the other letters/numbers have scraps, etc all over the place. It just so happens the other letters/numbers are much larger than the Mint Mark.
