1966 p Washington quarter

[hellgee]

I am new to this forum. This is my second post. It is identical to my first post except for this opening paragraph. My first post, which I put on the mint error forum, has been viewed 34 times but received no responses. Its not that I'm impatient I just wondered if I put the first post in the wrong forum? To those who have read it before, sorry for the repetition.

The foruth edition of the CPG lists a 1996 p Washington quarter with "unknown die damage". I have been doing some research and can't find any references to this coin. Can anyone tell me the current status? Has there been a determination of what it is? Does it have any value?

Thanks,
Hellgee

[wavysteps]

The only person that knows that answer is J. T. Stanton and it maybe why you have not gotten any reply. Another person who maybe able to help is Jose' Cortez (listed as such in the membership list) for he is a quarter person.

BJ Neff

[hellgee]

Thanks BJ. I was just concerened that I did something wrong with my first post.

Hellgee

[diamond]

These are die scrapes, perhaps inflicted by a feed finger. These would be expected to occur solely on the anvil die, but they're also sometimes found on the hammer die, at least in quarters. Since the obverse die was used as both the hammer and anvil die by this time, I couldn't tell you which die this was. The scrapes seen on this 1996-P quarter are seen in other years, but they always seem to run in the same direction. Some cases are much stronger than this one.

As far as value goes, they never seem to sell for much on eBay.

[hellgee]

Thanks for the analysis Mike. For what its worth, I agree.

I'm new to this, both the forum and the hobby. I been "searching" for about 18 months. Definetly a newbie and not very confident in my level of knowledge.

The die scrape explaination makes perfect sense. Something with a broad enough base and inflexible enough that it could not effect the incuse design areas of the die, "attacked" the die. What that something might be is certainly beyond me.

That being the case, the newbie in me wonders how something with such a simple explaination ends up in the CPG as a mystery? I also refer to an article in Coin World (9/24/07 - Collectors' Clearinghouse) which presents what appears to me to be the same situation in regard to the reverse of a 1999 P Connecticut quarter.

I can only guess the the mystery is what did it.

[wavysteps]

I am familiar with die scrapes on the Lincoln cent which tend to travel in the northwest to southeast direction. They are found on the reverse (can't recall ever seeing then on the obverse?) most always (if I said "always", someone would pop up with one on the obverse).

I believe that Mike has stated the most probable cause, die scrapes.

BJ Neff

[diamond]

There are some Arkansas quarters with both die scrapes and scrapes on the coin (post-strike) that are prefectly aligned, indicating the same moving part was damaging both.