I was researching a little about clashed dies yesterday. While reading a definition of what a clashed die is it said that sometimes when dies clash the impression from one die can be transferred to the other die. This I understood, but it also went onto say that impressions are more likely to be left on the softer (usually the reverse) die. My question is why is one die softer than the other? Is this so the anvil die can take the pressure of the hammer die hammering it without shattering or cracking? I am assuming that by saying it is usually the reverse die that is softer that means the anvil die would be the soft one. Thanks...Mont.
I did a simple google search for clashed dies. It was mentioned in the first definition that came up. I just did same search and now I see it is from an ancient coin forum. So maybe this only pertains to ancients?
The part about the softer die being more likely to receive the clash marks. As to why one die would softer than the other, it is the real world and not two items are truly identical so given the same heat treating no two dies will be exactly the same hardness. Plus the dies are heat treated in groups and they may be some difference depending on where the die was located in the group (center, edge, front of the furnace, in the back). Then the quenching isn't going to be exactly the same for each die either. Some will have cooled more than others before quenching, if the quench in a tank, the contents of the quenching tank will be colder for the first die than the 50th etc. As to why the reverse is the softer one, will I can't really say if that is true, but if it is it may be because the reverse dies are typically shallower in relief, and since the deeper obverse will have more metal movement/filling, they may take more care in their hardening.
I would say that the clashing would effect both sides of the coin. Here is an 1865 Nickel Three Cent piece that is heavily clashed on both sides.
Clashing CAN affect both dies, and probably usually does, but it doesn't have to. You will often see coins that show a clash on just one side, but whether that is because only one die was damaged, one of the dies was changed, or the clash marks on one die have worn away is not normally possible to say. In some cases on early coins we can see, by tracing die stages, where just one die is damaged from a clash.
