DurfDuck Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 I was lucky enough to get a coinscope for Christmas and I found this strange mint mark on a Drummer Boy quarter. Would love to know what's going on here. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenstang Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) It is a “D” mintmark with a broken post that has been damaged. Nothing of any extra value. Nice closeup photo, just what we need to see all the details. Edited January 27 by Greenstang EagleRJO 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powermad5000 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 From what has been provided here, the mintmark took a good hit and it displaced the metal. You can see the scrape marks all throughout the mintmark as the metal was dragged, some plowed into the center of the mintmark, and the rest piled up at the bottom. Being as you provided a piece of information in your opening here, that I took note of immediately, I want to say something about it without trying to be rude or diminish your interest in looking over coins so I am going to try to be careful in my wording here. It is great that you got yourself a Coinscope, but I would like to pass along a cautionary statement that does not come with the product. While the scope can be a very helpful tool in variety attribution and for checking areas that may be in question, all too often on here we watch people go down the rabbit hole of errors (a word which you did use in the title of this thread and as a question thankfully). Scopes, high mags (30X, 60X, 100X), and microscopes are not useful for checking every coin. The rabbit hole comes when you start seeing miniscule things on the surface of a coin which are not seen during normal 7X which is used in grading. All the sudden, every coin you have has some surface condition which you believe to be a mint error and then you are too down deep in the rabbit hole to see out. I am not saying not to use your scope at all, I am just saying to understand what you are seeing when you use it and also when to use it. You also need to become better educated in what exactly constitutes a mint error. I suggest you look over everything in the site error-ref.com. There is a ton of information so it is not a five minute read. Sandon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleRJO Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) On 1/27/2024 at 1:53 PM, DurfDuck said: I was lucky enough to get a coinscope for Christmas and I found this strange mint mark on a Drummer Boy quarter. Would love to know what's going on here. Thanks! I agree with Greenstang that it looks like there may have been a chip of the die at the inner part of the "D" mintmark, and then the coin subsequently took a hit there. Minor die cracks or chips like that are very common, and are just considered a normal part of die wear from striking coins which doesn't add any value. Unless you are using the scope to quickly check coins while roll hunting, I would put the scope away until it is actually needed, for say coin authentication or variety attribution, as it can lead you down rabbit holes with how much it can show. It can also lead you astray on grading with all the imperfections it shows. Die Chips: https://www.error-ref.com/die-chips/ Tools Article: https://www.pcgs.com/news/tools-of-a-professional-coin-grader Edited January 27 by EagleRJO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenntucky Mike Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 On 1/27/2024 at 1:53 PM, DurfDuck said: I was lucky enough to get a coinscope for Christmas and I found this strange mint mark on a Drummer Boy quarter. Would love to know what's going on here. Thanks! The mint mark took a hard hit which scraped the metal off the top and deposited it at the base, your image says it better than I ever could. Looks like there maybe a die chip in the MM, a curiosity but of no added value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
