2012 Walking Liberty missing toes

[dollykm12]

I was looking at my '22 silver eagle, there is a couple things that are off but can't put finger on it yet. The 2012 was handy so I was using it to make comparisons, and then I realized for the first time that the front foot looked like the eagle's claw. LOL. So, my question is what would have caused the missing toes? They look like they were snapped off. Thank you in advance.

[MintErrors]

Very nice photos ! Thanks for those.

In my opinion, it looks like some of the material of the toes may have been removed due to mechanical issues. It would probably be grouped in with all the worthless doubling, aka ejection doubling, mechanical doubling, machine doubling, die deterioration, or several others.

These dies can strike hundreds of thousands of coins before they reach their end of service. As a metal working die ages, it gets less sharp, dull and may move a bit during the striking of coins. That little wiggle can surely alter the look of a coin.

I an not sure what type of maginification was used in these photos. Attributors typically use 10x magnification to determine whether its a bonefide error or variety. If it takes more than 10-15x, and it was found to be of interest, it may be considered too minor to list, since it requires a high magnification.

[dollykm12]

Thank you for the info. You can actually notice it with naked eye, but obviously not able to see the detailing as in pics. (smaller foot by eye) It justg looked creepy up close. Thank you again!