Part 2 - The craziest coin I’ve ever seen 0

[Santanbecca]

Hi again,

 I wanted to get back to this before I got sidetracked because this coin is the reason I looked into what to do in the first place. The following is a 2000 Virginia state quarter, which I originally thought was something that had been somehow defaced because it looks like Washington has Indian braids. I’m not sure what could have happened to create an error like this, but it’s definitely wild looking. I’ve looked, and it looks like there are quite a lot of errors with this coin, but as far as I can tell, no one has seen this one. Questions would have to start with “WTF?” but honestly, I think I have similar questions as those in my 1st post:

1. Has anyone seen this before? If not, is it common to find something completely new?
2. Am I looking at it correctly when I say there is “ghost lettering” in several places? I don’t know if this is a good description for what I’m seeing, but there are definitely faint random letters where there shouldn’t be on the obverse side . 
3. Also, just like the last coin, there is definitely some stuff that looks like doubling or faint, ghostiness (if that’s a word) on the reverse side, but hard to tell for sure because the strike was so terrible overall.

I don’t give much explanation in these pictures, since they really speak for themselves. My hopes are high with this coin because it’s so crazy looking, so if anyone can give me some idea of what I have here and how rare and how valuable it would be, I would love opinions. 
 

Thanks again,

Rebecca

[Coinbuf]

Looks like glue that has dried in that shape, soak the coin in acetone and most likely those braids will fall off.

[Greenstang]

Hi again-
Agree with the glue and acetone that Coinbuf stated.

Also what you are referring to as “ghost letters” are just circulation markings on the coin that may appear to be something else. It’s commonly called pareidolia, seeing something that isn’t there.

Remember that an error can only happen during the actual striking of the coin. The devices are permanently engraved into the die so ghost lettering just can’t happen. There are a limited number of things that can cause an error but there are countless things that can happen to a coin after it has been struck that can cause damage.

[l.cutler]

Totally agree with the others, glue and plain old circulation.

[RWB]

Maybe the US Mint should issue a "pareidolia" commemorative....say a 4-1/4 cent piece or 6-cents?

[Santanbecca]

14 hours ago, Coinbuf said:

Looks like glue that has dried in that shape, soak the coin in acetone and most likely those braids will fall off.

Thank you - I thought the same thing at first, but didn’t want to ruin the coin if it wasn’t glue. It sure looks like part of the metal when I zoom up on it. is there any other test I can do that won’t damage my coin? 

[l.cutler]

Acetone won't hurt the coin.  It may remove the foreign substance, depending on what it is though.