Hello John, Welcome to Coin Talk if I did not do so before. Yes to deteriorated die as said above. The more Philadelphia coins you encounter the more you will see this effect. Mostly this will be evident on dimes and quarters because of the very high numbers of coins that are made and the fact that Philly uses their dies to the bitter end. On Philly cents, you will not see this but will see cracks and chips. And because of the low mintages on halves you will not encounter this very often. Same goes for the dollar coins.
I don't know, Books! The OP asks for feedback, but doesn't bother to respond. Why should we even bother? Chris
He was still online at the time of my previous post, which was about a half hour after yours, and was part of the reason I seconded it. Still, it's only reasonable to wonder... Even in a case such as this where said die deterioration is visible, there's always a chance it doesn't explain everything and is why our question is perfectly reasonable.
I notice there is a lot of die deterioration blamed for a lot of things on coins. If you look very closely there are 3 5's clearly vis.....especially on the #2 dime....I use a usb microscope for pics, best I can do....I would bet $$$ if you held these dimes in your hand and looked at them you would see what I'm saying. I really don't think die det is going to put 3 5's on a coin
The reason die deterioration gets blamed so much in this forum, is that a lot of inexperienced collectors post pics of them, thinking they're something else. You received responses from some very knowledgeable and experienced collectors, so I would put your $$$ back in your pocket and spend some additional time learning about the mint process and errors. Although if you are positive the responses are incorrect, spend $50+ and send your coin to TPG
Based on the last pic which 'clearly shows' 3 5's as you put it is something (effect) I think you will be more than likely to see on many Philly (especially) dimes from the 1990s onward. The bottom-most 5, as it were (presuming you were correct to say there are three 5's, which I don't believe you are on this) is what I would say is 100% or near 100% the result of die deterioration and/or mechanical doubling; either way, I think that all things being equal from the number of dimes I've handled as CRH (coin roll hunting) and change hunting (probably on the order of at least 5,000 $$ and possibly as much as 10,000 $$$ just on dimes) over the past 15 years, where I have first put money that needed to be spent on bills into buying coins to search and then either getting them into a bank via coin machines or using as purchase money for things like gas or trading them for dollars at various shops that needed change and was willing to 'buy' my coins, that this is either fully die deterioration effects or a combination of die deterioration and mechanical doubling. The first and second (top most) iterations of the date and motto would be die deterioration for sure IMO. Again, based on the number of actual modern dimes I have handled in looking for silver and for a date and mm set of modern dimes from change and CRH in the highest grade I can obtain. Basically that sort of thing has been my hobby for around 15 years --- getting change and making my own set of uncirculated (when possible) or highest grade circulated coin I can get for the modern and lower denomination US coins. I (obviously) think you should pay attention to this 'opinion' of mine. Philly as a mint for their lower denominations has been really hard on their dies and they use them until they drop as far as putting an image on the coin blanks (except they don't seem to have a lot of retained cuds or large die breaks, so I presume they do pull them at some point or the dies are being made so that they are so stressed out without actually shattering).
I do thank you all for your info and input. I posted zooms of the coins. The horn sticking out of the side of the 5 is one heck of an effect.
I agree. Looked very up close and I do understand now. I then spent some time viewing videos to better understand. Thank you all much!
