1988 Dime Looks Like Somethig Under The P And Year

That describes the age of the die in use. This one was well past the end of its' useful lifetime, best seen by the radical flow lines extending toward the rim on the reverse, and the overall "mushiness" of the obverse even though the hair and ear are still well-defined.

Another good hint is how the rim around some of the obverse looks filleted instead of like a step - the die is so old that "step" is wearing away and flattening out. I think the extra ridge along the opposite rim on the reverse happened because the other side was simply too worn out to hold the die in alignment.

This is important to you as a coin guy for two reasons:

1) Anything which would have been an error on the coin has probably worn off the die by this point.

2) VLDS dies do odd things which can look like "errors" but it's purely a function of wear.

A clash, die crack or something like that big enough to last into this stage of wear, would have destroyed the die so it would never have lasted this long.

Me, I'd keep this one simply because you don't often see a die this old. It doesn't have added value, but to me it certainly has added interest. In fact, I'm stealing these pics for my Teaching Album as a classic illustration of a die used far too long.

feel free to use the picture If you need it for educational purpose