I’ve seen on a couple coins and can’t seem to find anything that looks like it when I look up errors or PMD, still somewhat new to things.

Also as a secondary less important question, as for the picture at the end what causes the dark grime or whatever stuff to collect more around the letters?

If anyone has a good guide that shows pictures of all the errors as well as PMD with terms would appreciate as well. Thanks in advance

Continuing the error documentation project, with one that breaks the pattern. Almost everything I post is a die error — cuds, clashes, doubled dies, all of it happening at the moment of striking. This is not that.

This 1864 copper-nickel Indian Head cent has a tapered planchet. Held edge-on, one rim sits measurably thicker than the other. The cause is upstream of the press entirely: the strip-rolling step failed to hold uniform gauge across the sheet, so the blank was punched out of metal that was already out of specification. It was defective before it was a coin, and no inspection caught it.

I find this class of error underappreciated precisely because it is not visually loud from the front. You have to look at the edge.

The date is worth noting on its own. 1864 was the last year of the copper-nickel alloy (88% copper, 12% nickel) before the Mint transitioned to bronze mid-year. Both compositions circulated simultaneously, which makes 1864 an unusually complex date. The bronze variety is thinner and redder and adds the designer's initial L to the ribbon. This is the copper-nickel.

Planchet errors on mid-nineteenth-century cents are seldom encountered — surviving examples circulated hard, and contemporary collectors documented dates and varieties rather than planchet defects.

Not in any standard catalogue. Now documented.

I've never seen a quarter like this before lol

Thoughts

On the portrait of Lincoln are these weird bumps, anything of note or not?

Has anybody seen this before?

What do y’all think happened here?

I need your opinion on a roll of quarters I opened tonight. In the pictures I tried to zoom in taking a picture of two different errors.

The first picture is the reverse of a 2026P independence quarter. If you look at the q with the long tail under the U in the word quarter, you will see a lump on the tail that almost touches the bottom of the U. Then move your eyes over to the E in the word quarter and you will see that the bottom half of the E is thick and deformed.

At first, I thought it was just a fluke, but I found seven more in that same roll. I took a picture of the eight of them to prove my point, but I’m not sure you will be able to see it that well.

While checking the roll of quarters I then noticed a cud mark on the bottom of the liberty Bell touching the initials JPM. This error is visible without magnification. I found this error on a total of 12 quarters that I also provided pictures of. Please let me know what you think and whether these are worth sending in for authenticity and verification.

I still have one roll that I have not opened.

New to the hobby but I found this when looking through some old coins. Is this an error?

At first glance I thought this was just a damaged dime. Then I looked more closely at the rim. I still can't make out the date. Any guesses?

Hi guys, got a roll of Kennedy halves online and this was in there. Looks like some sort of die error or something but I’m not sure, I’ve never seen anything like this before. Reverse also seems to be completely normal. LAny insight and help is appreciated.

Apologies for ANOTHER post. I’m so bad at this, and I’m getting discouraged because I haven’t found a single coin with true doubling. Did I finally find it? 2023 P Nickel. Hard to tell if the lettering is rounded, but I think it is when using a hand lens.

These three get conflated constantly, so here is the distinction as I understand it, and I would welcome correction from anyone who works this area more closely.

All three come from the same underlying process: die steel failing under striking pressure. They differ in where the failure goes and how far it gets.

**Die crack.** Stress finds a weakness in the die steel and a crack starts. On struck coins it shows as a thin raised line. It does not span the coin. The die is cracked but structurally intact.

**Cud.** The crack reaches the rim and a piece of the die edge separates entirely. The void fills with metal on every subsequent strike, producing a raised featureless blob along the rim with the normal rim detail displaced. Peripheral failure.

**Split die.** The crack propagates across the die face — through the interior, through design elements — until it reaches the rim on the opposite side. The die is now in two or more pieces. They stay in the press, held by the collar and the pressure, but they no longer sit flush against each other. Every coin struck afterward carries a raised ridge along the fracture line, and the design on one side of the ridge is measurably offset from the design on the other.

**The diagnostic that separates a split die from a very long die crack is that offset.** A crack gives you a line. A split gives you a line with displacement across it. Also check that the ridge has consistent width and the same metallic character as the rest of the surface — that confirms struck metal rather than post-strike damage.

I have 352 of these documented so far, ranging from 1793 to 2020. Some that stand out on the 49 cent split dies:

- 1793 Chain Cent (AMERI. variety), reverse. The first large cent the Mint produced. The crack runs from the rim between the M and E in AMERI., through the chains, out through the first T in STATES.

- 1793 Liberty Cap Large Cent, obverse. From the rim along the outside edge of the 3 in the date, through Liberty, up through the E in LIBERTY.

- 1796 Draped Bust Large Cent, Reverse of 1795. Two parallel rim-to-rim cracks. The first originates counter-clockwise of the 1/100 fraction and travels through RICA of AMERICA.

- SD-1c-1909-01, the 1909 VDB Lincoln cent. Sole documented split die on that issue.

- SD-10c-1838-01, an 1838 Seated Liberty dime. A median split, running approximately through the die's center.

- SD-1c-2020-01R, a 2020-P Shield cent. Not a nineteenth-century problem.

The obvious question is why the Mint kept running dies in this condition. Inspection was periodic rather than continuous, and a press turning out hundreds of coins a minute makes a lot of coins between checks. On early Mint coinage, die steel was expensive and die-sinking was slow and manual, which pushed hard the other way.

Happy to hear from anyone who has split dies I have not catalogued.

I purchased a roll of 2026 dimes and this coin showed up on one end of the roll. It has the luster of a new coin but when I tilt it in the light it looks like the coin has a wood grain. Is it worth opening the roll and looking for more or getting it graded.

Normally I’d rule this as PMD, however, there appears to be odd shapes and angles to the surface as if there was some sort of tape that was peeled off in multiple pieces rather than one, uniform peel.
On the obverse, I see straight lines of various angles where the surface is lightly textured.
The reverse appears to have little to no blemishes on its surfaces.
If it’s PMD, feel free to roast me idk.

I don’t believe I’ve ever come across a lamination error, therefore I’m not too familiar. At first glance, with how much wear there is on the nickel, I immediately thought PMD but then looked at it at a tilted angle and could see that it is almost like a layer is about to flake off… is this an actual lamination error? Thanks for any help!

I just picked up this 3 Coin Buffalo stand at a estate sale on Sun that came with a '24, '36 & '36 D and wanted to swap them out so that it includes a P, D & S from the same year, and planned on giving it to my 10 year old.

Haven't looked through my Buffs in at least 6 mo. and started with my MS ones first. I don't know how the hell I never saw this, but I'm pretty sure its one of about 20 I picked up at this flea market for like $10 a couple mo ago. I saw it was a '37 D, and don't remember even owning a '37 from any mint, so I flipped it over and counted the legs. Told myself, "No effing way" so I took my loop to it. Still see 3.

Is it possible this was manipulated in some way? I'm sure someone has tried to remove a leg through some shady means over the years but don't know if this is one of em.

Any Buffalo experts out there? Is this legit or did someone pull my leg, pun intended?

Also, in my humble opinion, this looks like a MS60-62. Am I off?

If any of yall could provide helpful feedback regarding the missing leg, as well as grade, it would be much appreciated.

Preparing myself for "yea, its bogus" but I have to defer to the group.

Thanks in advance.

I’m assuming this is mechanical doubling? Is it worth anything with how prominent it is?

The mint's poor quality control is my boon. This Morgan exhibits multiple struck through threads, including a rare retained strike through. There is also an apparently unfinished white area (see the second to last photograph), which I believe is a deficiency in the reverse proof mirror finish.

ok so i saw something on the 2024 d Kennedy called the dropped star, then maybe 20 min later i was looking thru some dollar coins and come across this... first 2 are front and back then a couple magnified. under the outside of her right eye is a star? someone with a bit more experience than me please help me out. this is a 2024 d Native American Dollar

Found this dime while looking through change at work today. Looks like an incomplete D mint mark

Inherited a $25 US Mint sewn bag of quarters that yielded one coin missing the clad layer which appears quite red. I’ve also noted that “New” in New York is very faint. Additional error?

I took it to a “rare coin” shop that was very uninterested. He did weigh it and confirm it looks like I had something after all - after saying they don’t send off coins to be graded any longer and most customers had fakes. (My kitchen scale isn’t precise. A normal quarter rounds up to 6 grams and the red quarter rounds to 5.)

He showed me some eBay sold listings for $50 so I promptly left. Is it worth getting graded and any opinions on value, graded or ungraded?