Here's the third installment of " Teaching John About Errors". The 4 in the date is almost nonexistant. I figured it for a filled die, but I'm curious about how the edge slopes off into the field at the date. The reverse looks normal. All opinions would be appriciated.
A faint or missing last digit can have several causes: 1. A slightly weak strike. Because of built-in die convexity, peripheral design elements may not completely fill the recesses of the die face near the edge of the field. The rim may also appear weak. 2. Vertical misalignment (tilted die error). A little bit of die tilt can cause weakness of the rim and nearby design at one pole. 3. Filled die error. Since the reverse is normal, and since the strike appears strong everywhere else, I would assume it's a filled die error. A strong rim on the reverse, sharp rim/edge, junction and well-struck edge adjacent to the weak/absent digit would confirm the diagnosis.
re-examined I went back and looked at the coin's reverse and noticed the "flattened" letters. It's more severe in the "d" and "st" but there is some at the top of the "f" and "am" directly reverse of the date. What would cause the flattening to be more severe on the oppisite side of the reverse than the obverse? Don't know how I missed it when I first looked. Still learning how to really look at coins and what to look for. Thanks for the input.
It could be a minor tilted die error. Check the reeding. If it's visibly weaker next to the weak design, that would add some strength to this hypothesis. We cant, however, rule out an accumulation of die fill in the same spot on both dies. If it is a weak strike due to a tilted die, then the weakly struck area should show some evidence of the tumbling marks that are present on an unstruck planchet. The cause of subtle design weakness like this is often difficult to diagnose.
