1987 D Quarter With Crazy Strike Through

Weight?
John1

It almost has a struck through cloth look to it but how is it centered like that?

With the obverse showing no signs of damage I'm leaning towards genuine error and a unique one at that.

Nice find!

That's my fault. My USB microscope isn't tall enough to image a quarter fully from a direct overhead shot so it's angled slightly which gives the quarter an oval look. The quarter has the exact same diameter as a normal quarter. I would just need to reset the microscope higher on a platform to show a true overhead.

Yes! I would love to get his opinion on this one. If it turns out to be a legitimate error I was thinking about sending it off to get slabbed. Mostly for preservation sake and because I like to have my most interesting/odd error coins in slabs.

That said, my recent experience with submitting my 1937 cent struck through die cap on a tapered planchet experience (posted about previously) has me much more gun-shy on submitting coins like this.

Very interesting!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Eagle has left the building."

Hi Mike,
Thank you so much for taking the time to review! The weight of the coin being just below the lower bounds of the mint's tolerance was the biggest yellow flag for me as well. I'm not sure if it will help with your analysis but I was able to take better close-up images of the patterned area of the coin. At first I wasn't sure if they were raised or incuse but after reviewing them under higher magnification they are definitely raised elements.

In short, the weight makes me lean toward PMD but the raised pattern displays a cross like stitching pattern you'd expect to see in a struck through fabric which is something I feel like would be very difficult to create post-minting. So I'm still a bit on the fence.

Have you seen any other PMD coins display this type of fabric-like patterning?

Thanks again!

Also, the only thing I can I think of to explain the centered and circular nature of the anomaly (other than a gigantic and unlikely coincidence) would be if this was done intentionally by a mint employee. Otherwise, this is just a truly phenomenal fake for someone to get those tiny fabric patterns added artificially post-mint and without damaging the obverse of the coin.

Reeds on the outside edge of the coin? (Can't tell from the images provided) Makes me wonder if there was a extra cladding/obstruction on the reverse side of the coin, that fell off of the coin. The reason I think this, is that the obverse doesn't appear to be lightly struck. So post strike, the obstruction fell off of the coin thus leaving the central design missing on the reverse. (Leaving the strike on the obverse normal) Reverse showing the devices missing and lighter in weight.