1931-S Buffalo Nickel Clash Die

Here is one of my favorite Clash Die varieties. Philip Wood of North Carolina reported finding this very nice higher-grade circulated example on a 1931-S "Buffalo" five-cents in a roll he recently purchased on ebay in 2008.
A clashed die occurs when the planchet delivery system fails to deposit a planchet within the dies and the press cycles causing the dies to smash or clash into each other. When this occurs the design of one or both dies may impart outlines and sometimes some raised areas on each other. Coins stuck with these dies will show these aberrations until they are removed by the Mint or wear away.
In looking at the overlays provided here you can see how the design areas on the reverse, sited as the source of the clash, match up with the clash marks on the obverse. For those of you who want to lean how to create overlays like the one shown here: I photographed the obverse and reverse at the same size and then imported the images into Adobe Photoshop™. I then inverted and horizontally flipped the image of the reverse into the orientation it would be in relation to the obverse when the dies came together. I then used the circular cloning tool, set at an opacity level of about 50%, to copy the image and drop it right over the image of the obverse and presto we have a composite image that illustrates what areas of the obverse/reverse match up in a clash.
From my Feb. 2008 Coin World Column, Varieties Notebook.




Overlay of clash.