Counterclash and Clashed Die Errors
nivek
Posts: 55
Will PCGS attribute these on coins submitted through the Mint Error service? Thanks.
- Kevin
- Kevin
0
Comments
CONECA #N-3446
I have a specimen that is currently in an ICG holder (like the one shown in the web page). I would like to cross it to PCGS but I am not sure if they will attribute this type of error.
Thanks.
- Kevin
I don't know if they would slab it, but with the exception of a few VAM varieties I don't think I have seen more than a couple clashed dies that was worth the price of the slabbing.
- Kevin
- Kevin
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
As for this dropped T error - it would be almost impossible to fake or cause it to happen because of the nature of the error. What happens is that dirt, grease & metal filings accumulate in a letter or digit of the die which causes what we know as filled die errors. But if enough of the stuff that fills the die is say metal filings, it gets packed into the letter recess of the die and gets harder and harder with every coin it strikes. But sometimes this hardened material will drop out of the recess it was stuck in and land on a planchet. With the next strike this hardened material can be pressed right into the surface of a coin or even create a new recess in the die. Once the new recess is there in the die - the next strike produces that same design on the next coin - only this time it is raised metal on the coin itself. A new letter or digit appears on the coin where one never was before.
"When you say the dropped letter can "create a new recess in the die", you are describing a novel type of counterclash error. I have never heard of, nor seen a counterclash created by a dropped filling. While I suppose it's possible, I rather doubt that the plug of hardened gunk is sufficiently hard enough to create an indentation in the die face. There are only a handful of counterclash errors known, all but one being Lincoln cents. The other is a 2000-P Sacagawea dollar." Mike Diamond
<< <i>Would someone please define "counterclash"? This is a new term for me. >>
IIRC, a counterclash is what happens when: a set of dies already clashed clash again (with a (slight) change in alignment?) thus imprinting the clashed designs back on the original dies. Thus, a coin struck from such dies should show double (reversed, incused) clash marks, plus the counterclash (non-reversed, raised) marks.
As to whether PCGS will slab these as such, I don't know and I don't care. As long as I could tell that's what it is, that's what matters.
Ed. S.
(EJS)
PCGS, ANACS, & NGC Certified Coins on My Website.
There was an article by John W. Bordner about counter clashes in the March 6, 2001 issue of Numismatic News. Mike Diamond also wrote an excellent article about design transfer, including clashes & counter clashes. If I remember correctly it was for Coneca's Errorscope magazine but I don't remember the issue.
1969s WCLR-001 counterclash
-- Mike Diamond