Puerto Rican quarter die break not a cloud

Jim Dawson of Florida sent in a 2009-P Puerto Rico quarter that shows multiple die chips and die breaks on the reverse. The most prominent is on the top of a cloud and folks on eBay have been offering these as having an “extra cloud.” Please believe me, this is a die break and not a cloud.

John Benton of Utah sent in four different 2007-P Wyoming quarters. They all show a multifaceted die break on the upper left side of the rider’s hat. Three of them exhibit a die crack on the obverse that runs from the base of Washington’s bust through the “Q” of QUARTER to the rim. Interestingly, they were also all struck through grease that worked itself from the peripheral tooling into the dies. In this case the grease covered areas of both the obverse and reverse dies. Notice how the offending grease migrated upon the coins with each one representing specimens with possibly dozens or more strikes in between that would have shown the progression of the migration more precisely.

Ken Potter is the official attributer of world doubled dies for the Combined Organizations of Numismatic Error Collectors of America and for the National Collectors Association of Die Doubling. He also privately lists other collectible variety types on both U.S. and world coins in the Variety Coin Register. He is a regular columnist in Numismatic News’ sister publication, World Coin News, where he writes the Visiting Varieties column. More information on either of the clubs or how to get a coin listed in the Variety Coin Register may be obtained by sending a long, self-addressed envelope with 60 cents postage to P.O. Box 760232, Lathrup Village, MI 48076, or by contacting him via e-mail at KPotter256@aol.com. An educational image gallery may be viewed on his Web site at www.koinpro.com.