Does this Alaska quarter have an EXTRA (8) next to the 2008?..Also look at the reverse of the coin. Look at LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. The (U) is pretty BIG. Is this an ERROR coin. Thank you in advance
There is no reason for an extra 8 to be there. I think it's a stain or a smudge that makes it similar looking. It's called Paredolia.
Lots of environmental damage. Anything different you see are more than likely caused by that damage, no a mint error. Looking for errors on damaged coins is a waste of time IMO. It's a lot more difficult to distinguish a true error from all the damage, and even if you were able to convincingly show it's an error, the damage kills any collectability and value
The main thing to take away from this is you have to eliminate your bias to wanting it to be something. For instance this is my take on it. here is a closeup. (a) those THREE (yes 3) circular stains/damage are in a chain fashion. (b) looking just to the right of the lower 2 stains/damage are an outline of 2 add'l stains/damage in a semi-circular fashion. And there's 2 smaller ones to it's right. Also if you look on the right hip of the 8 there are two dark stains there looking as a filled in super small 8. (c) in order to have an 8 one has to disavow one of those circular things and everything else all around it. Thus then, one can convince oneself to correlate 2 of the 3 circular stains/damage to be an "8" .. as the 3rd one would make it NOT an 8. (d) of course the "8" is not the same size as the real 8 next to it. Thus the mint worker would have to use a different 8 stamp to put it there .. plus the circles really are not perfectly round circles so they are pseudo circular shape. BUT if one looks really closely ... I can CLEARLY see 2/3rd of a bicycle rim that has a few spokes going to a hub. this is really an error, is it really there ?? did the mint worker ALSO etch a bicycle wheel on the DIE? This is truly historic isn't it? So I see many links of a bicycles chain looping in a bicycle wheel to keep it from getting stolen. But, I can tell you that is what I SEE because I correlate it to something I know and desire it to be. Is it really there or is it one of those things where you see shapes in clouds .. aka pareidolia and I'm just convincing myself I see something in random shapes which is from stains and damage and stuff ? This is the hardest thing .. to remove your own bias you have of WANTING and DESIRING to find an error. Truly looking at the coin for what IS there seems to be the hardest thing for error searchers, especially as Oldhoopster stated on "damaged coins". Of course, I see a bunch of antlers above the 8 too ... so .... well, maybe it's a dancing cow ?? Edit: btw, my outlined scenario of the chain/bicycle wheel are much more feasible as it accounts for all the damage seen, not just a small proportion of it. But, of course, it not.
