1994 Dime Partial Tilted Collar Error?

Hi John1,

Interesting find, partial collars often times have some reeding and some smooth edges. Your coin has evidence of reeding on both sides of the raised line on the edge. Sorry I only have useless speculation and no answer. But I think it is a cool find.

Thanks for posting it.
Tom

I have seen this once or twice before on coins I was searching. I don't know what causes it but here is my guess:

I think this is struck as a full collar strike with a damaged collar. It looks to me like at some previous strike the stroke for the hammer die was set too low and came down into the collar barely contacting the inside of it on one side damaging it part way into the reeded area. In other words what we would call a collar clash.

This is only speculation. Hopefully Mike sees this and gives better input.

John,
I'm easily confused so bear with me please.
So, if the coin were laying obverse up, like in photo 1. The edge line sort of goes down from and back up to the western most side of the obverse, where the second small double rim line is? If so that would seem to be a partial collar strike. The part I don't get is how the reeding gets on to the edge that should not have been in the collar. Plus the reeds don't seem to match uniformly.
I've only found one partial collar strike, it was a quarter and like your dime it was misaligned and the reeding was uneven. Unlike yours mine is smooth on the un-reeded part. I am not an expert but find this very interesting. I too hope Mike sees it.

I find partial edges regularly and don't usually keep them unless they are dramatic. I like this one. Definite keeper!!

A fully reeded but stepped edge is sometimes evidence of a double strike. However, in this case I don't see that as likely. The upper half of the edge isn't as laterally expanded as that of a typical double strike in which the first strike is fully within the collar and the second a partial collar.

I've seen this edge pattern on many dimes and I've never understood why it forms. It's possible that the upper portion of the working face of the collar was damaged by a previously installed, misaligned hammer die. Even though the collar is harder than the die steel, it's possible that repeated contact could wear away the tips of the ridges. You'll note that the reeds are flatter and more poorly defined than the reeds on the lower half of the edge.

Anyway, that's all I've got.