Too much pressure on the mint mark.

joeykoins

Has anyone ever come across a coin with this happening? An indentation under and around the "D" . That sinking hole appearance. How can this happen? I can see in the old days where the mint mark's are hand punched. Thanks



Nothing on the reverse side. No protruding sign .

MarkKelley

The mintmarks WERE hand punched into the die for this year.

moursund

@MarkKelley said:
The mintmarks WERE hand punched into the die for this year.

? for 1986?
But hand punched or not, to leave indentation around the mint mark on the coin, it would have to be "proud" on the die. How would that happen?

JBK

Easy. When the mintmark is punched into the surface of the die, the displaced metal needs to go somewhere.

In this case, the metal was displaced by forming a raised area around the punched spot.

joeykoins

@MarkKelley said:
The mintmarks WERE hand punched into the die for this year.

REALLY??? Did not know this. I thought it was only the earliest years?

moursund

@JBK said:
East. When the mintmark is punched into the surface of the die, the displaced metal needs to go somewhere.

In this case, the metal was displaced by forming a raised area around the punched spot.

This is apparently unusual... or we would commonly see depressed mint marks (insert prozac joke here). Any idea why it "mushed" this way for this die?

Onastone

I've noticed this on a few coins. Funny you mentioned it, I thought it was just a highly pressured mint pressing. I've been looking closer at mintmarks lately and have noticed lots of changes in the fonts and some are just blobs.

PerryHall

@JBK said:
East. When the mintmark is punched into the surface of the die, the displaced metal needs to go somewhere.

In this case, the metal was displaced by forming a raised area around the punched spot.

Exactly. When the die is subsequently polished, this mound of raised displaced metal on the die gets flattened and the depression in the fields surrounding the mintmark disappears.

JBK

@moursund said:

@JBK said:
East. When the mintmark is punched into the surface of the die, the displaced metal needs to go somewhere.

In this case, the metal was displaced by forming a raised area around the punched spot.

This is apparently unusual... or we would commonly see depressed mint marks (insert prozac joke here). Any idea why it "mushed" this way for this die?

For what it's worth, I've seen this on lots of quarters from the 1980s.

MarkKelley

Mint marks were placed on the master die for Proof coins starting in 1985 and for buisness strikes in 1990.> @joeykoins said:

@MarkKelley said:
The mintmarks WERE hand punched into the die for this year.

REALLY??? Did not know this. I thought it was only the earliest years?

ricko

@JoeyCoins ... Excellent pictures. I have seen this a couple of times, though not at all super common. As mentioned, likely early die state. Cheers, RickO