1996 Quarter - Die Crack on Reverse?

[pahwa]

My wife gave me a cup full of coins to look through and I found this. I found it! Not my son who seems to find all sorts of stuff. lol Am I off my rocker here? Something is going on with the coin. Sorry for the poor quality of the pics I need to get a better set up. Thanks for your input.

[Maineman750]

Could be a crack or a die gouge/scratch. Cool

[Daniel]

It looks like a die crack, but an extremely straight one.

[pahwa]

It straight through the S but it does swing around to the base of the right leg of the M in unum then makes like a curved 90° turn to the top of the eagle head. Hard to see in these pics. As for a jagged type break that it is not. lol

[Daniel]

Yes, I can see this and that's why it could be a slight gouge in the die. It's still a mint error find and YOU found it this time.

[pahwa]

I find it amazing how many of these gouged or cracked dies that are out there. I am search key date coins that I have stock piled during bank roll searches and have found quite a few of these things. Some more dramatic than others. If I am only searching a small percentage of coins this close how many did I miss in the back rolls that were turned back in. I guess when searching the bank rolls, every coin should be looked a little closer than I am searching. Yes, I looked at each coin but the key dates were put into a jar for later more thorough inspection. Hence the ones I am finding now. But if I am finding 1 per 100 coins, just an estimate, in the saved key dates just think how many got missed and went back to the bank. I know there isn't much value with gouged or maybe even cracked die coins, but they are cool just the same and to me worth saving. Man this coins stuff is a kick! :thumbsup:

Out of curiosity, how does a die get gouged?

[Daniel]

I look for such "small" errors as well and keep the most dramatic. I always thought that a die gouge occured when it struck a tool or object that gouged it.

[pahwa]

How fine these gouges are they must use some extremely fine tools. Maybe a metal filing goes through the stamping. I would think that the dies are quite hard to last longer, but that makes them brittle. No matter they are neat finds.