I have two with the exact same pattern (snot and head explosion), and this is starting to look like some sort of growing progression and I have no idea what to even search for. The others with this effect I have shows up on random places on the reverse and aren't near as prominent like these are. Here's the first one I found: And the second which appears to have grown: And of course.... Happy Thanksgiving! EDIT: Maybe not a progression, I looked at it wrong. 2nd pic the snot is bigger, but the back of the head area is smaller.
This sort of thing is fairly common and has been referred to as being a type of strike through. If this is indeed the cause I cannot say for sure, but may at least give you a starting point. Good luck!
Thanks. The first time I stumbled across it I immediately thought strike through and set it aside to categorize it that way. But then I found the other.
Photo quality not good enough for me to tell for certain if it is a lamination, a strike through, or damage.
Fair point, but why would something capable of this stuck to the die produce only one coin showing the anomaly? @JCro57 would be one I'd trust to give a sincere and educated answer, so perhaps additional photos would be worthwhile. This sort of thing is quite common (on dimes and quarters iirc) and he's surely seen it many times navigating everyday life.
Hopefully these are what you are looking for. It's really hard to get really good quality photos because I can't turn that light down any further. Tried to move the light around a little to help with it. I just don't have a good camera to take better photos. I'd love to find out one day what equipment is needed to get really good closeups. Just wasn't expecting myself to find two of them in circulation at the same time.
If these were found on two separate coins from what you got in change, I imagine most if not that entire roll (and more) would look the same. Thus I am guessing it is a strike through just based on your statement.
Thanks JCro. They came from the same bank trip. Not too sure on the roll as I sorted all of the quarters out by variation to help me more easily cherry pick the nicer ones of the set. Wished I had an entire roll of these, but alas just a handful. It's definitely incused, but very faint. Pictures doesn't do it justice (does it ever?) as it looks ppretty neat to the naked eye and through a loupe. Seems like the consensus is strike through and I will mark it as such. Thanks all!
If it were a strikethrough, I'd expect to see the area of the portrait that aligns with that feature to have been affected somewhat, with at least some kind of mark or depression going across George's ear. I was going to guess planchet flaw, but I guess that can't be right, since there's no way two flawed planchets would have ended up aligned exactly the same way in the dies. Then again, it looks pre-strike to me, so... ? I tried to figure out how that could be some form of die clashing, but since it doesn't seem to match the contours of the reverse design, I don't suppose that's right, either. I'm stumped, but intrigued.
It's almost like there's 2 objects because of the way the 1st coin is with a perfect little swoop at the nose. The 2nd coin is weird though because like you say one would expect more of the portrait to be affected. George kept his nose clean, but his hair is slightly affected in the back. I just picked up a new camera yesterday and should have the micro lens show up today. Will try to get some better photos now that I should be able to do some real macro photography as I know the microscope can be deceiving at times.
Really weird. Tell me, is the stippled area oh-so slightly raised, or incuse? I'm wondering if that's not some sort of corrosive damage to the die.
I don't quite follow what you mean by "stopped area". Everything looks like the affected area is incused. The nose area to me looks like it slowly raises back to the correct level as it moves outward. I guess corrosive damage to the die would make it raised instead. I guess I should have noted that the angle of the 2nd camera photo is with the bottom raised and the top tilted downward. Looks like these were more interesting than I expected.
But wouldn't it look smooth and have less characteristics (at least shape-wise)? http://www.error-ref.com/struck-through-smooth-viscous-material-grease-oil/ EDIT: Should note, I am perfectly fine with it being struck through grease, just thought it would look differently.
No. It's not like they were greasing, ball bearings . They wipe the dies down with grease and then clean them . Like greasing a ball bearing, the rags can get quite messy and leave grease on the die ..
Sorry, that was an autocorrect malfunction. I typed "stippled". My phone decided to step into an editorial role, as it so often does.
See this all the time on the state and park quarters. This one has a more unique pattern than normal.
