Part IV. Die Errors:
Die Breaks:
Catastrophic Die Failure
Definition: Massive spontaneous brittle failure that results in large portions of a die breaking away. We’re often witness to the aftermath of such failure in the form of enormous marginal die breaks (“cuds“). We often get advanced warning of such failure in the form of shattered dies and split dies. But seldom is the failure captured as it happens.
For more information see the May 11, 2013 Coin World.
This two-coin progression documents the breakup of a quarter dollar obverse die. The quarter on the left has already lost the portion of the die containing the date. The intact portion of the die shows some die damage. When the quarter on the right was struck, a large portion of the die containing IN GOD WE TRUST and Washington’s chin broke off. This portion of the design is wildly displaced. This coin shows heavy clash marks that are absent from the first coin. Evidently there was at least one other strike interposed between the strikes that generated these two quarters. That strike was delivered in the absence of a planchet and the dies clashed heavily. This may have contributed to the loss of the additional die fragment.