2020 Salt River Bay (mangrove)

[Ronald Ozimek]

I found these marks near the mangrove tree trunk just above the waterline. Would you consider these die polish marks or die scrape marks? Someone mentioned they found something similar in another post but I could not find the pictures to compare. A follow up educational question on die scrapes Vs polish marks. I read the article on die scrapes (error-ref.com). With the die scrape defect, the die is damaged when the feeder finger rubbed against the top of the die. Subsequent coins stamped after this have the defect. Are most polish mark defects created when die maintenance is being performed & the die maker is correcting wear or damage (like die/finger scrape marks)?

[mustbebob]

I just answered you other post concerning things like this, and I think this falls into the exact same category. I am just coing to copy and paste my reply here:


You are likely to see this on many quarters. This is sometimes a layer of grease on the coin that spreads out on each striking. At other times, there are streaks or polishing marks on the die. These are not collectible (unless it really appeals to you), and are not worth cataloging.

[jcuve]

I agree with Bob - though there could be a minor die scrape (not dramatic enough no matter what to be collectible). And this is in the wrong area as well - it should be in the mint error forum

[CoinFinder]

These are described as feeder finger damage (a mint error), with a number of coins currently listed for sale on eBay. Just do a search on feeder finger error to see a few examples of this exact quarter.
Basically, the feeder finger is damaged, then the die is damaged by the feeder finger, and then these coins are the result.
Feeder finger damage is described pretty thoroughly on this page---

https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=336856

[Ronald Ozimek]

Thanks CoinFinder. That is an excellent and informative article! I found a group of these and kept them on my desk. After reading the article I compared the scratch marks coin to coin they are similarly spaced which would not likely happen if the root cause was grease. Can you please check my other post for 2020P salt river bay quarters with marks under Mr. Washington's chin? I have a group with similar marks on each coin & would appreciate your confirmation. I will post a few extra pix in that post for comparative purposes

[Ronald Ozimek]

Bob/ Jason. I have higher level error tracking question. Should we be documenting current minor coin defects? I notice the many Peace type silver dollar errors do not command a premium over the base coin but have hundreds of defects listed for each year. Is it the sheer volume that keeps us from cataloging defects such as this one for 2020 coins? I see folks on Ebay are asking $10-$20 for this defect (not sure if they are actually selling any). Honestly I'm not so interested in the $$ portion as much as understanding the bigger picture.

[mustbebob]

Good question Ronald. There is a group of collectors who love to catalog different anomalies on Silver Dollars. A lot of those anomalies have been assigned VAM numbers. Those collectors deal primarily with Morgan and Peace dollars. and it may well be because the errors/chips/clashes etc. that make up these VAMs are rather unique, and the number would be rather small. As you already mentioned, some of the VAMs do not result in a premium on the coin, whereas others do.
With that being said, we should not be documenting every single thing on quarters, or any other denomination coin. There would be literally thousands and thousands of anomalies and I can not think of a single reason why anyone would want to know those types of things. A lot of these minor errors change the more the coin is struck. This is basically a Die Stage sort of things and we are trying to alleviate some of those very things on minor varieties.
My personal take is that if someone is willing to do all the work of documenting every single die chip, minor clash, then they should also post them for general information. I do not think a place like CONECA would even endeavor to take on something like that.
As far as sellers on eBay selling things they think are unique, very few of those auctions last long. They find out that maybe thousands of coins have that anomaly, and it is just garbage. That is where EDUCATION is the key. You need to know what it is before spending your hard earned money on it. I would stay FAR away form the majority of eBay sales/auctions on newer coins.

[jcuve]

I cannot fathom documenting die cracks, chips or other minor anomalies on modern coins...