State Quarters Errors?

[Hankster]

The first three quarter pictures are the 2008 Alaska which seems to have trails leading off from the lettering to the rim on both sides of the coin. What would cause this?
The last two quarter pictures are the 2008 Arizona which seems to be revealing the copper base underneath. Is this a case of improper or too thin plating?

[wavysteps]

Hi Hankster - I can answer the first part of your question, but will leave the last part for Mike who is infinitely wise in these matters of thin or missing clad layers.

The coin pictured is a LDS example and is showing die deterioration, which in this case are lines from the tops of the letters to the rim. If you will notice, these lines are radial in direction where trail lines travel in one direction, most of the time; we do have examples of multi directional lines but then again they are reciprocal in direction.

BJ Neff

[diamond]

I have to disagree with BJ on the Alaska quarter. The radial lines extending from peripheral letters to the rim look like a variation of the "starburst effect" most often seen on Sacagawea dollars. On one's quite sure what causes it, although some guesses have been made. It seems distinct from die deterioration. The Arizona quarter shows a slight coppery tinge, which was most likely caused by improper annealing. Excessive heat or prolonged exposure to heat in the annealing drum seems to be the cause. These used to be called "copper wash" or "sintered plating" errors. The exact physical/chemical basis for it is poorly understood.

[jazzcoins]

What i see on the Alaska quarter could be a form of missing clad laying. I never encountered any thing like that or saw that kind of oddity before

Jazzcoins Joe

[diamond]

Jazzcoins, if you had any experience at all with the starburst effect, you'd realize that there is nothing wrong with the clad layer.