I posted the below pic on the error section a few days ago to show what appears to be a die chip in a Colorado State Quarter. It was there that someone pointed out the extra P far below the standard P mintmark. Machine doubling is obviously ruled out. And because mintmarks are no longer punched manually, how in the world did this happen? It's barely visible without magnification. Upon closer looking, I found several more die chipped areas, as well as a possible die break on reverse. Any help on this would be appreciated. Guy~
Interesting, most likely a grease filled mintmark, and the grease was shaped and then fell out, landing on the die. Post this to the errors section so that Mike Diamond will see it.
That is really interesting. I have never seen anything like it before but the grease filled explanation seems plausible.
The only thing I know, is it wasn't me that left that pee! :whistle: Ribbit Ps: What about a stamped coin not getting ejected fully and when the die hit the coin a second time, the mint mark on the coin slightly scarred the die?
There are coins that do not eject properly and end up getting a second stamping. They sell on Ebay all the time, so once it's been stamped, whats to stop the coin from slightly damaging the die when it gets hit the second time? The coin is no longer a planchet, it's fully struck and has a P mint mark on it now, so that mint mark is hit again by the die, except the coin is partially ejected so it isn't laying centered on the die and when the obverse die hits it, the P scars the die enough to faintly show up on subsequent strikes. What is so hard to understand about that? It sure beats thinking squishy grease could damage a hardened die, but a struck coin can't? :goof: Ribbit
That sounds plausible to me, Toad. That die had to be near the end anyways. There are several more chipped areas I found. Hopefully Mike Diamond throws an explanation my way as well. Guy~
Not sure I totally follow what you're saying but if you're saying that a coin can damage a die then there would certainly be more evidence of the event than a single letter being transferred. Someone said the mint marks aren't punched by hand any more. If that's the case, the machine that does the punching may have slipped out of alignment when being set up and left a slight impression on the die. If that's the case, many other examples should show up.
There is more evidence but it's hard to see. We need full pics of the coin, both sides. :thumb: Ribbit
Who said anything about it damaging the die? And the "grease" from a grease filled die is anything but "squishy". The "grease starts out as lubricating oil that gets mixed with dirt, metal dust and shavings. I become more of a paste. As it gets pounded into a recess of the die it gets some of the oil "squeezed" out of it and the remaining material becomes pretty hard. Then when it falls out it still isn't hard enough to damage the die, but it can be pressed into the softer surface of a planchet. If a letter becomes fully filled and then drops you can get a full deep dropped letter. If the letter was only partially filled (shallow fill) and that falls out it could give you a faint impression like this. I can't tell from the picture whether the P is raised or incuse. A dropped letter would be incuse. If the coin could make contact with the mintmark in the die again it would be raised. There is a problem with the idea of a coin making contact with the mintmark on the die a second time is that the mintmark in the die is incuse and the coins is no longer flat. The raised lettering and rim would prevent the field area from being able to make contact with the incused mintmark in the die. Another possibility, especially it it is neither raised or incuse, is that it is just a chance coloration on the surface of the metal and the hardwired pattern recognition systems in our brain is simply seeing it as a P. The brain trys to make sense out of and create patterns from random noise, and they are very susceptible to suggestion. Show someone random noise and suggest you see certain things and others will see them as well.
See, Toad, Condor makes sense. [and seems to have accidently agreed with me. I know, that's a stretch, but one I like.]
Mintmarks are no longer punched period. Not by hand. Not by machine. Mintmarks are now made a part of the Master Hub (raised just like on a coin). When Master Dies are made from the Master Hub the mintmark is pressed into the Master Die (along with all other raised details). Working Hubs and Working Dies are then made from the Master Dies. The mintmark will be identical on every Working Die (excepting variations like die doubling).
