Important advice and input sought on research project. Letter sent to mint director Fore. Your tho

wingedliberty

Here is a copy of a letter that I mailed today to our mint director. I welcome your suggestions and thoughts on the subject.


" Dear Madam Director:

Let me first start by saying that I am very pleased with the job that you are doing as mint director and I appreciate the fact that you recognize the numismatic community as a core component of the success of the U.S. mint.
Today, I received in the mail, an NGC certified Mississippi quarter from an auction that I recently
won on Ebay. Upon receiving the coin, I examined it in great detail under magnification and came up
with the following assumptions.
1. It is a good possibility that the following occured.
a. The blank planchet was heavily polished prior to being struck and it is a very early die state.
b. The blank was treated in a solution of unknown origin which left it heavily polished.
c. This uncirculated business strike was struck with a die intended for a proof coin.
These theories are based on the following observations.
1.The coin exhibits very raised rims and cameo contrast atypical for a business strike.
2.The coin exhibits metal flow detail that is typical for a proof rather than a business strike.
3.The devices appear to be very smooth and polished and appear very chrome like.
4.The devices remind me of specimen type coinage from Canadian specimen PL sets.

Can you please elaborate whether any treatment of blank planchets occured for Mississippi coinage?
Can you please elaborate whether proof dies may have been used for Mississippi business strikes?
Can you suggest other ways that this may have happened?


Thanks again for your time, and I would be very happy to provide the example for your inspection providing that it remain in the NGC capsule and is not subject to confiscation. NGC has labeled this
example as PL on their label.

Thanks for helping the numismatic community learn more about the minting process.
I am posting this as an educational thread on the PCGS /Collector's Universe forum."





Best regards,
Brian Ostro
ANA R179758
CU forum. (wingedliberty)."

link to item:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10768&item=3007202618&rd=1[/L]2002-P Mississippi 25c NGC-MS66PL

cladking

Coins like this started showing up in 1986 and have been getting increasingly common.
I've been told that this effect is typical in the '95 and later souvenir sets but I've yet to
see any of these. It's likely that these are related to the "burnished" coins, but a response
from director Fore would prove most interesting.

Most of those I've seen have been in regular mint sets and affect all the coins.

wingedliberty

The mint has gotten alot more secrative about the minting process. I hear there are alot fewer errors
escaping the channels and they are less than forthcoming about minting proceedures and techniques such as burnishments , etc. Although, the Freedom of Information Act may be a way, Who knows anymore?, All I know is , is that I am curious.


Brian.

Gilbert

This may or may not be the case in this instance, but, in the past it was not unusual for mint personnel to use proof dies that are beyond their abilities to strike decent proof coinage, to save money hubbing more non-proof dies. I believe this became an acceptable practice with the usage of the B reverse on Washington quarters, and we know it has also occurred in both the Franklin half and Lincoln cent series.

wingedliberty

If this is indeed the case, the mint is not generally forthcoming in releasing such information.
I wonder if they will reply at all.
Any thoughts?


Brian.

cladking

This mint director has proven to be more forthcoming than many of her
predecessors so there is hope.

There was apparently some use of retired proof reverse dies especially
in the 70's and early 80's.

wingedliberty

Are those known as "transitional errors"?


Brian.

cladking

It seems it was likely just a cost savings move for the mint. Rather than discard
the reverse dies after they were retired at least some were used to strike reg-
ular circulation strikes. While proof like reverses often show up in mint sets, these
are not the ones I'm referring to. Occasionally you'll see circulation issues which
appear to be struck with proof reverse dies. Most of them are from extremely worn
dies but there are some with newer dies. There are several differences in the pre-
paration of the regular and proof dies. There also appear several "hybrids" among
the mint state issues. It appears that the '98 and '00 type 2 Lincolns are likely
hybrid proof dies rather than actual proof dies. This likely also applies to the type "d"
reverses on the '77 to '84 quarters. Most of these reverses were type "c" but a few
dies initially intended to become proof dies were inadvertantly processed as circulation
dies and were the first type "d's".

wingedliberty

Thanks for your valuable input. I will keep everyone posted on any responses from the mint.
This type of thing always fascinates me.


Brian.

wingedliberty

I would like to also email this thread to her, does anyone have the mint's or the director's email address?

Brian.

GDJMSP

Here's the email addresses - she has more than one -

Director of the US Mint


Henrietta Fore

But I wouldn't expect her to answer directly although it is possible at times. More likely a gentleman named Bradford Cooper will respond.

Trime

Great letter and post.
This is the level of discovery that we should be pursuing.
I look forward to the response through her technical consultant (employee).

cladking

Our chances of getting a response are probably greatly improved by the fact that the
question concerns a new coin. Because of specialization in industry it is sometimes
difficult to know just who to ask these things and if the question is about past prac-
tices it becomes more difficult. People move from job to job and don't always remember
details of previous work.

Likely this coin was a mint set coin and was burnished. It would be great if your question
were to lead to a comprehensive explanation of any of these processes.

wingedliberty

Thanks everyone for their feedback and the emails. I have also emailed this thread to the mint director
at both email addresses. I await her response and will post it her when it comes (hopefully it will come)

Brian.