VAM assistance: 1879S

jmcu12

I came across this 1879S today and something caught my attention. There seems to be, what I am calling a reverse die clash. I call it that because I am not sure what else to call it. The marks are incuse, that is why I call them a reverse die clash.

If you look at the pic you will see, circled in black, what look like tail feather tips.

The obverse, as shown looks to me like a VAM 26 as the 879 meet all the requirments; the nine and seven are doubled and the 8 has a blob of metal between the loops on the left side.

Please advise on the reverse of this piece. At first I thought it was just an ordinary contact mark/ding, however these marks are semetrical and they look like they might be tail feather tips.

Thanks.

Stuart

Are those just reeding marks where the edge of another coin dinged and surface to make 4 dots ??

FC57Coins

I think that's just a reed ding. Die clashes would have relief to them instead of being incuse - also there would have to be some sort of correlation to the other side of the coin - I don't see anything on the other side that looks like that. Sometimes you'll see die chips that fall off the die after wear - they will be raised as well.

ksteelheader

It is a clashed die....Ken

ksteelheader

Look in the area I outlined. This is a blow-up of your picture.....
.

FC57Coins

Ken - it's not raised - what would it correspond to on the obverse?

jmcu12

And in my rather amature obvservation it does not look like reeding to me. I wish I could have obtained closer photos, but the shape of the marks are tail-feather like. But as FC57Coins said there is no relief to the marks.

Could these marks have been caused by another coin striking the reverse? But then again would we not see more areas where more marks would be?