Show me some Peace Dollars with Huge Die Cracks.... and a Clinic on Feed Finger Rubs!
BryceM
Posts: 11,861 ✭✭✭✭✭
I just love the imperfections of these beautiful coins. Between die-polish lines, water spots, die cracks, clash marks, and planchet flaws these Old Ladies have some personality.
This die pair had one foot in the grave when it spit out this one. I think I can make out 9 distinct cracks:
This die pair had one foot in the grave when it spit out this one. I think I can make out 9 distinct cracks:
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Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
These aren't "huge die cracks" but they're fun nonetheless.
Lance.
<< <i>You think that's what it is? I was thinking it was an area of die polish. Never heard of feeder finger scrapes. >>
Yup. The obverse die of the Peace dollar was the anvil die. Feed fingers, which pushed the finished coin out of the coining chamber, would periodically come into contact with the anvil die, scraping off the flow lines, effectively polishing a small area. Usually it's further away from Liberty's neck, near the left and right ends of the motto. On Morgan dollars (and Standing Liberty Quarters), you see this on the upper left and right reverse. I wrote a VAM-e newsletter for the SSDC about this phenomenon on a dare. Someone said that he'd buy a sandwich to anyone who could put together six sentences about the subject. Six detailed paragraphs and several photos later, he still owes me a sandwich (with chips). I need to collect sometime.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
That's undoubtedly what happened here too then:
A guy can learn somethin' new every day 'round these parts.
<< <i>
<< <i>You think that's what it is? I was thinking it was an area of die polish. Never heard of feeder finger scrapes. >>
Yup. The obverse die of the Peace dollar was the anvil die. Feed fingers, which pushed the finished coin out of the coining chamber, would periodically come into contact with the anvil die... >>
Curious - do you know if is this how the "Chin Bar" (1923) and "D Bar" (1924) die gouge varieties were created?
Could the feeder fingers have caused that much damage to the die?
Mike
<< <i>Curious - do you know if is this how the "Chin Bar" (1923) and "D Bar" (1924) die gouge varieties were created?
Could the feeder fingers have caused that much damage to the die? >>
Yes, but these pronounced, deeper gouges my have been caused not by the feed fingers themselves, but perhaps by the feed fingers pushing some debris across the die that caused the gouge.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution