ATB Coins With Mule Characteristics

I'm pretty sure the mint would not "recycle" coins in that way, if they even do it at all. The mint would have the coins melted down and reformed into blanks, they wouldn't just throw them back into the striking chamber.

I believe what you are seeing is just contact marks, damage, that simply looks like a letter.

The word we're looking for is pareidolia -- interpreting specific designs from abstract patterns. Those "letters" aren't really there.

Merc,
i was not surprised to see you over here, again, slow your roll as many others have asked.

#2,, your single word "really" implies a huge amount of frustration that could only be fueled by some past association for which we have none.

#3, I made no suggestions at all, I asked a question but you made a personal choice to find time to take a new members post and hope that you could single out the question being asked as a way to flip it around and make it sound like something its not.

#4, Since I am well versed in grammer, its only prudent that I take your good luck wishes as nothing more than futher condesention.

#5 stay away from this post from here on out please, I will post at other times in the future and at that point you can chime in as long as you steer clear of venting on me free of charge for other things that have nothing to do with me.

#6- to all
I am prob seeing things in the cloud I know, in person the odds of that letter A being "not there" is in my own visual interpertation nearly none but its not without saying I could infact just be seeing things. I do believe its an interesting coin with stray marks that could be viewed as worth saving back.

the only reason I pulld this and the other coin out was because of my attention being brought to an ATB coin being called a "dropped T" on the obverse under in god we trust. as soon as a saw that ,, I thought to myself "what the heck,, how could something like this ever happen". its suposed to be a clear field with no stray letters and if there were stray letters and infact only a single letter,, it makes even less sense.

my mission is to pull out coins people and collectors can make some sort of connetion with. this coin has one fault in that you can not really see the issue without a scope.... which in all reality means you all are right in that "it not there". with a few more years of handling, it actually will disappear even from a scope.

I recently found a war in the pacific with a Cud just ahead of the gun barrel.... again, a coin that people can make a connection with,,, something that makes it neat illustrating an actual bullet leaving the barrel. Another would be some half dozen bicentenial doubling on the reverse.

I wouldnt mind mailing this out to someone else to look over though,, I want to make sure I dont misrepresent the condition or situation of this coin. a small part of me agrees its nothing,, but in person ontop of the coin,, the letter A is plain as day even with the serif's,,, unlikely odds if a natural random mark. I also noticed that the "A" nd the "M" are on a particular radius that might match up to the radius of the word america on another denomination.

who knows....... all I know is that ive been wanting to join this forum for a while now.. great info and knowledge base here!!

I agree it's just damage but hey, if you like it, that's all that matters and you can add it to your collection.

I believe it's just a coincidence, because the "letters" are extremely vague and look like they could be anything and they don't match up with anything on any other coins or dies that I know of.

I do not appreciate the personal attacks on me. That is not what this forum is for. I call them as I see them, period. And I will continue to do so.

merclover, its fine that you call them how you see them, just know what you're talking about when you call them.

Jcassity, in all seriousness to your questions concerning you ATB coin. I cannot find a single clad quarter that would have the type of lettering in which you are seeing. Keep in mind that what you are thinking is that it may be recycled, if this scenario were even a remote possibility the US mint would have to do this one at a time to make sure the obverse dies lined up with the coin to be struck. Now, what happens to the reverse? Surely the reverse has a design that would have to be obliterated and a new design take its place. In all fairness it's either one of three things you're seeing, either very well placed dings on your quarter mimicking something resembling letters or die dents doing the same thing or a clash. Those to me are the only three logical explanations for what you're seeing.