1944-P Mercury Dime - What happened with the "E" in LIBERTY?

[stevewalkerny]

This 1944-P Mercury Dime is not a double die or known variety, but has something happening on the "E" in Liberty that does not look like post-mint damage. Any idea how this might happen in the minting process? Thanks!

[dpapa3rr0r]

I will try to explain what I think happened. This could have been a retooling of the die, grease on the fingers and OOPS. Dave. Anybody else?
Or it was perfectly hit by something!


3M7, 10c, 1945, 12%ock7.jpg

[MintErrors]

This 1944-P Mercury Dime is not a double die or known variety, but has something happening on the "E" in Liberty that does not look like post-mint damage. Any idea how this might happen in the minting process? Thanks!

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In my opinion, it is seems pretty minor, might simply be metal flow escaping from a heavily worn die either Late die stage or Very late die stage. All it takes is a minor
Deviation and things happen. It could be the start of a die chip or die crack. There are probably a handful of reasons that fit. Could be a fragment, could be a super minor strike through. The metal looksclike its flowing toward the rim...

Over magnification on some coins will show up looking like something major. Seeing a single photograph that is generally flat in nature makes all the assessments a tad harder to know when and where it happened. Throw in the fact that generically, most coins found are well circulated, and that throws a caution to most people assessing coins. Its way different when a coin is in the hand to be examined than via any photo on any forum.

The US Minting process is not perfect even to this day. Things happen out of the stereotypical world of classic errors, some of which people take a SWAG of what it may be.