Tommy, I'm not 100% sure that this is a die clash. It looks similar to a deformation I found on CA SQ's. When I was searching bags of them, I found many specimens with a similar anomaly on the brim of John Muir's hat as well as on the side of El Capitan. Finally, I found one quarter that had a large filled die chip on the brim of his hat in the same location. I concluded that the original anomaly was actually a sub-surface crack on the die that expanded upward and produced a very slight depression on the coin. Chris
You could very well be correct. I don't have anything else yet to compare this with so I'm punting at this point. Thanks for the idea you mentioned though.
I may be in error here as I think I recall a true die clash from Mt. Rushmore that I found and posted some time ago. It literally has smoke billowing out of the top and other clash spots. I'll have to locate that and see if I can make any comparisons or not.
If it was a clash, what device on the obverse would have caused it? Also, while you're examining it, if you have a microscope or higher power loupe, look at it closely and see if you can determine whether the anomaly appears to be bulging outward or sunken on the surface. Chris
I'm still playing with the lighting on the scope but under my loupe the anomaly is raised, not sunken.
Although I can't do a better pic right now Rick, mine is not separated like yours. It is a nice even flow from the mountain top. Plus, I took the photo from outside a 2x2 so the glare is showing also.
