State quarter has front but no back

@Parshutr
What is your question?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I cant see any markings that the back was machined off. Any opinions?

 

PMD as others say.

 

What is PMD?

 

Is that Post Mint Damage? If so, how would that happen? Smooth surface does not appear to be grinded or sanded off in any manner. Just curious.

 

It's been damaged, that simple.

 

How can someone know that it did not come from the Mint this way?
Any value to this coin?

 

There is no way for this to have happened at the mint. It was just ground or sanded with something fine enough not to leave too obvious marks.

 

The minting and die making processes are well documented and people have taken the time to study them. With this understanding, it's easy to see that this could not have occurred at the mint. It takes some time to learn but many members have been doing this for decades. That's why they can confidently say that it didn't occur at the mint.

It was ground or a headed as others have said

 

Post mint damage is what your coin would fall under plain and simple

 

That's nice that people have taken the time to study the minting and die making processes. But I don't think it really answers the question posed by this gentleman. I think he's looking for "why" someone would say it was ground (or "a headed"), as some have said.

Here's what I see. Willingly subject to the endless corrections (diplomatically and otherwise) of others.

The obverse of that coin - the obverse being the side with Washington's left facing bust - has what appears to be a good ("good" defined as normal and expected) rim. The rim is that protective raised edge. The rim serves to protect the obverse and reverse from normal wear and tear. The rim is made by a machine or device called an upsetting machine (or something similar to that). So, before the a planchet is struck, the blank runs through this upsetting machine. A blank is just a round piece of metal, which has the proper weight and diameter (very close) of the coin to be minted, stamped from a sheet of metal. The upsetting machine makes that rim on the blank (both the obverse and the reverse at the same time), turning the blank into a planchet (there are other terms for this but not important here). So, a quarter dollar planchet looks like a quarter in every way except that there is no image stamped on either side. Oh, I am almost 100% certain that the actual edge (also referred to as the "third side of a coin") is smooth.

Then the planchet gets to the minting machine. The planchet gets placed on a die (sometimes called the anvil); I think usually on top of the reverse die. Then the "hammer" (where the obverse (maybe it's the reverse die) die hangs out), smacks the planchet. There is also a third "die" called the collar; the collar, in the case of a quarter dollar, has the reeding on it. The collar is just like it sounds; it is around the edge of the coin.

As an aside, I'm sure many will comment (nicely, of course) that many if not most of today's minting machines smack the planchet while the planchet is vertical and not hornizontal; I'm just trying to make it easier to see in the mind with the quite understandable words "anvil" and "hammer."

The collar keeps the the planchet from spreading out and becoming variably wide from the force of the hammer smacking it. The 'force' is tremendous. The collar can have writing (like on our $1 coins) or reeding of some sort. I suspect that without a collar, we would have coins of the same denomination with varying diameters. Moving on, today's high speed minting machines get the planchet in place, the collar around the planchet, and the smacking in seconds - maybe milliseconds considering how many coins a modern minting machine can spit out freshly minted coins in a minute.

Anyways, the point of all that is to show you that the reverse of your quarter has no raised edge. There is no rim. That is unusual considering how blanks are turned into planchets, which are turned into coins. Unusual meaning that it is unlikely, very unlikely, almost impossible - that your coin is a Mint error. Since your coin has a smooth reverse, the most logical scenario is that someone with nifty tools and too much time on their hands decided to make that reverse smooth. If your coin still had a rim on the reverse, then a Mint error could be more of an logical probability; probably not, but maybe. Here, in the case of your coin, there is so little doubt for even a 'maybe'.

Based on all that, I have to agree your coin is post mint damage (PMD); that is, the coin was damaged by someone after the coin left the hands of the Mint.

Does that help or satisfy your curiousity? I hope so.

Have a terrific day, everyone !
David

 

Thank you all for the information. David, your detailed explanation is most appreciated.

 

@Parshutr. There are such coins struck on one side only called "Uniface Coins". Here's a photo of one taken from Error-Ref.com:

Notice the blank side has an raised rim. ERROR-REF.com is a great place to learn about how the errors occur.

 

@mark420. Sorry, but the coin in question is not struck on a nickel planchet. Nickels do not have a copper core. Also, it's not the same thickness as a regular quarter. It stands to reason that if you grind it down, it will be thinner.

 

The last time mark was seen on CoinTalk was
Oct 7th, 2013

 

Thanks. That's what I get for not paying attention.