Die break (?) on 1957-D Washington quarter?

Hi - error newbie here. I was going through my extras to scan for sale,
and noticed an interesting quarter:
http://www.duck-creek.net/guests/quarter/
(OK, it's my server, but I can be my own guest, right? Anyone wants me
to post an image or three there, let me know. Standing offer).

Anyway. On the reverse right behind the eagle's head is a raised silver
feature on the coin, which seems (at 8x anyway) to be attached. Is this
a chip or crack in the die? I vaguely remember seeing something about
this particular coin, do I have anything that's particularly sought
after, or is this another one for my growing errors collection?

There seems to be another blob to the left of the "E" in "E PLURIBUS
UNUM" as well. So, can you tell me what I have here please?

Thanks,
Dave Hinz

P.S. I also notice I need to clean the glass on my scanner

On 1 Nov 2005 04:19:22 GMT, Dave Hinz wrote:

Anyway. On the reverse right behind the eagle's head is a raised silver
feature on the coin, which seems (at 8x anyway) to be attached.
There seems to be another blob to the left of the "E" in "E PLURIBUS
UNUM" as well. So, can you tell me what I have here please?

Looking at it more, and I'm following up to my own post...
http://www.duck-creek.net/guests/quarter/

The front has a loverly blob right at the bottom/back of his neck too.
So when you guys said my next step in the descent into obsession is to
be looking at die states, have I started that phase? What goes wrong
that both dies have problems like this simultaneously?

Dave "Oh, darn." Hinz

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
Hi - error newbie here. I was going through my extras to scan for sale,
and noticed an interesting quarter:
http://www.duck-creek.net/guests/quarter/
(OK, it's my server, but I can be my own guest, right? Anyone wants me
to post an image or three there, let me know. Standing offer).

Anyway. On the reverse right behind the eagle's head is a raised silver
feature on the coin, which seems (at 8x anyway) to be attached. Is this
a chip or crack in the die? I vaguely remember seeing something about
this particular coin, do I have anything that's particularly sought
after, or is this another one for my growing errors collection?

There seems to be another blob to the left of the "E" in "E PLURIBUS
UNUM" as well. So, can you tell me what I have here please?

Thanks,
Dave Hinz

P.S. I also notice I need to clean the glass on my scanner

There is a doubled die obverse '57D which yours is not. You can get one of
those in mint shape for around 20-30 bucks.
Total mintage of 77,920,000 which is pretty high for silver Washers.
What you have is not a die crack or a die break. Could be a die gouge. It's
got some yellow paint (?) on the reverse.
Average circulated '57D's are common. Worth about $1.75.
You can buy a great looking '57D MS66 for cheap--less than 30 bucks easy.
MS67's are hard to come by and the prices are all over the place.
HTH

On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 23:38:24 GMT, bri wrote:

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
Hi - error newbie here. I was going through my extras to scan for sale,
and noticed an interesting quarter:
http://www.duck-creek.net/guests/quarter/

There is a doubled die obverse '57D which yours is not. You can get one of
those in mint shape for around 20-30 bucks.
Total mintage of 77,920,000 which is pretty high for silver Washers.
What you have is not a die crack or a die break. Could be a die gouge. It's
got some yellow paint (?) on the reverse.

In real-life it's just a discoloration, that dot on the wing you mean?

Average circulated '57D's are common. Worth about $1.75.
You can buy a great looking '57D MS66 for cheap--less than 30 bucks easy.
MS67's are hard to come by and the prices are all over the place.

Well, there's another "blob" on the front, at the base of his neck near
the hair. I'll probably hang onto it as an oddity, but I've never heard
of "die gouge" before - and that doesn't really explain that blob on the
front. What, mechanically, happened to these dies?

It almost looks like the "Y" in LIBERTY is visible on the back off the
right wingtip?

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 23:38:24 GMT, bri wrote:

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
Hi - error newbie here. I was going through my extras to scan for
sale,
and noticed an interesting quarter:
http://www.duck-creek.net/guests/quarter/

There is a doubled die obverse '57D which yours is not. You can get one
of
those in mint shape for around 20-30 bucks.
Total mintage of 77,920,000 which is pretty high for silver Washers.
What you have is not a die crack or a die break. Could be a die gouge.
It's
got some yellow paint (?) on the reverse.

In real-life it's just a discoloration, that dot on the wing you mean?

Average circulated '57D's are common. Worth about $1.75.
You can buy a great looking '57D MS66 for cheap--less than 30 bucks
easy.
MS67's are hard to come by and the prices are all over the place.

Well, there's another "blob" on the front, at the base of his neck near
the hair. I'll probably hang onto it as an oddity, but I've never heard
of "die gouge" before - and that doesn't really explain that blob on the
front. What, mechanically, happened to these dies?

Well yeah--why wouldn't you hang on to it? It's worth $1.75. Got nowhere to
go but up ;-)
A die gouge is caused by a great many things--it could be someone dropped
something on the working dies or on the masters or anywhere else. There's
all kinds of things flying about when the machines are operating and
anything can and will get in there and mess up a die. Or maybe someone
dropped the dies? Sometimes they'll weld near the dies and some slag gets in
there.
Just imagine if you snuck in to the US Mint production facilities and went
up to a Wisconsin SHQ reverse die and took a chisel to it and carved out
some extra leaves. Those resulting raised areas on the coin would be
classified as die gouges.
It could also just be some after mint damage. Silver is pretty soft.


It almost looks like the "Y" in LIBERTY is visible on the back off the
right wingtip?

Hard to say with a circulated coin that's all scratched up. It's like lookin
at clouds. You can find all kinds of thing on there if you look long enough
at it.

Dave Hinz wrote:
....
Anyway. On the reverse right behind the eagle's head is a raised silver
feature on the coin, which seems (at 8x anyway) to be attached. Is this
a chip or crack in the die? I vaguely remember seeing something about
this particular coin, do I have anything that's particularly sought
after, or is this another one for my growing errors collection?
....

Dave, the bar behind the eagle's head looks like a die gouge to me.
Gouges are fairly common on coins and are not considered important
usually. There are some notable exceptions, of course.

Anita

On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 23:12:54 GMT, bri wrote:

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...

Well, there's another "blob" on the front, at the base of his neck near
the hair. I'll probably hang onto it as an oddity, but I've never heard
of "die gouge" before - and that doesn't really explain that blob on the
front. What, mechanically, happened to these dies?

Well yeah--why wouldn't you hang on to it? It's worth $1.75. Got nowhere to
go but up ;-)

Um, OK. I noticed something I thought was interesting, you see. So I
asked a question about it.

A die gouge is caused by a great many things--it could be someone dropped
something on the working dies or on the masters or anywhere else. There's
all kinds of things flying about when the machines are operating and
anything can and will get in there and mess up a die. Or maybe someone
dropped the dies? Sometimes they'll weld near the dies and some slag gets in
there.

And how would slag leave a hole, exactly, in a die, I wonder?

It could also just be some after mint damage. Silver is pretty soft.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned these were raised features?

It almost looks like the "Y" in LIBERTY is visible on the back off the
right wingtip?

Hard to say with a circulated coin that's all scratched up. It's like lookin
at clouds. You can find all kinds of thing on there if you look long enough
at it.

Your opinion is noted. Can you tell me from what background you are
providing it please? Before I, you know, make a decision based on them,
I'd like to have some sort of idea what they're based on, you see.
I'm sure you understand.

On 2 Nov 2005 15:20:50 -0800, wrote:

Dave Hinz wrote:
...
Anyway. On the reverse right behind the eagle's head is a raised silver
feature on the coin, which seems (at 8x anyway) to be attached. Is this
a chip or crack in the die? I vaguely remember seeing something about
this particular coin, do I have anything that's particularly sought
after, or is this another one for my growing errors collection?
...

Dave, the bar behind the eagle's head looks like a die gouge to me.
Gouges are fairly common on coins and are not considered important
usually. There are some notable exceptions, of course.

Thank you, Anita. I appreciate your time and information! I'll
probably hang onto it as an oddity, maybe the start of an errors
collection. Gotta start somewhere, and I've discovered I can't afford
any of Ira's museum pieces just yet...

Dave Hinz

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 23:12:54 GMT, bri wrote:

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...

Well, there's another "blob" on the front, at the base of his neck near
the hair. I'll probably hang onto it as an oddity, but I've never
heard
of "die gouge" before - and that doesn't really explain that blob on
the
front. What, mechanically, happened to these dies?

Well yeah--why wouldn't you hang on to it? It's worth $1.75. Got nowhere
to
go but up ;-)

Um, OK. I noticed something I thought was interesting, you see. So I
asked a question about it.

That's the thing about collecting coins--there are no rules. Collect what
you like and have fun doing it.
My rule is the same as your--if I think it's interesting I'll keep it
because you just never know sometimes.


A die gouge is caused by a great many things--it could be someone
dropped
something on the working dies or on the masters or anywhere else.
There's
all kinds of things flying about when the machines are operating and
anything can and will get in there and mess up a die. Or maybe someone
dropped the dies? Sometimes they'll weld near the dies and some slag
gets in
there.

And how would slag leave a hole, exactly, in a die, I wonder?

It's harder than the die for one so if they don't remove it all the coins
made after that will have a nice slag-impression left on the coins. Since it
was really hot when it landed on the die it also burned the part of the die
it stuck to so when it eventually comes off it might take a chunk of the die
with it.


It could also just be some after mint damage. Silver is pretty soft.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned these were raised features?

Do this--take a something hard and sharp and whack it with a hammer on that
coin but on an angle. You'll definately raise some metal up. I don't think
that's what it is though but you can get the metal to raise up for sure.


It almost looks like the "Y" in LIBERTY is visible on the back off the
right wingtip?

Hard to say with a circulated coin that's all scratched up. It's like
lookin
at clouds. You can find all kinds of thing on there if you look long
enough
at it.

Your opinion is noted. Can you tell me from what background you are
providing it please? Before I, you know, make a decision based on them,
I'd like to have some sort of idea what they're based on, you see.
I'm sure you understand.


Well the obvious thing to do then is to take your coin to a local dealer if
avaliable since it's much better to actually have it in hand--pictures don't
always show what you want to show.