I was looking at some change and noticed that there was something wrong with the beak of the eagle on the reverse side of this 1979 quarter. Anyone care to offer up your expert opinions on weather this is PMD or an actual mint error? If so, what should I do with this coin? Thanks in advance!
He got his beak caught in a trap. No offense, but why would you think this is an error? What mint process would produce this effect? Definitely PMD. Spend it.
When I looked at the coin under magnification the damaged beak looks to me like raised lines, not gashes or cuts in the coin. How else would you get raised lines that look to be the coins own materials other than when the coin is getting minted? I openly admit I am a newbie at spotting what is legitimate minting errors vs pmd, unless it's really obvious-that is why I posted my question and wanted to get experts opinions, such as yours. Thanks again for taking the time to look and educate me! Apologies for the newbie question!
Robert, what you have is a damaged coin.. what you are seeing is raised area caused by the metal movement. When you scratch a coin the metal that is now in the groove does not simply disappear, it gets displaced which cause a raised area, much like a meteor crater when they hit the ground. Keep looking, there are jewels out there but they are not in every handful of pocket change you receive. If they were then they would not be that much fun to collect.
Um, he doesn't know as much about the striking process as you do. That's why he's asking. They ask, we answer. You should know how it works by now.
Thanks guys for all your responses-I enjoy getting educated every time I post a coin for clarification! Tapping into the collective brain trust of this group always yields the correct answer!!!
