1884 O Morgan With Die Clash

Hi Stew, I do not know if you are familiar with this clash imprint, it is a out line of the back of Anna's head or cap (where it recesses above her hair) she is wearing on the obverse of this Morgan dollar. The Lady who was used for the Obverse of this coin, by Morgan was 19 year old Anna Willess Williams, after modeling, later became a kindergarten teacher and writer if my memory is correct......

You made me go back and look at my 1884 O's

Looks like I may have an early version of that one! (PS THE FRONT IS A CRACK ON THE PLASTIC CASE)

Morgansdad,
Thank you for that back ground information
on the Morgan design. I love learning things like that.

jeffreyice1, Very Nice 84 O
You Are Welcome


SuperDave, Here is a shot of your flame
You are right, very nice tilt to that one, I did not notice
that for some reason. Thank You for pointing that out.

Terry

Please post up close ups of the area on the REV of the IN GOD and wing area, It looks very similar to a "G" clash or it could be post mint damage..also close up of the OBV Neck area and hair above the second right star, I'm looking for signs of letter transfer..

Morgan dollars were struck on a Morgan & Orr (name coincidental) die press which was capable of striking 90 coins per minute. More than one per second. There was a tube which held a vertical stack of planchets (raw coin blanks). When one dropped on to the platform, a flat metal finger pushed it into the place where it was to be struck, held there by a collar which also imparted the reeding to the edge of the coin. When the strike was complete, the coin was pushed further in the same direction from which it came, fell into a bin for struck coins, and was replaced by the next planchet.

Remember, 90 times per minute.

Sometimes it didn't....work so well. Occasionally the planchet stack got hung up for some reason, a planchet never got fed, and the two dies managed to come together without a planchet between them to be squeezed. On these occasions, it was possible for the features of one die to be struck on to the other as they "clashed."

When the feed was fixed, the newly-clashed dies struck coins which then had those same clashed features pressed into them. If you look at the beautiful first image in this thread, note the raised, "vee" shaped area to the left of the wreath, even with the "ER." That is a clash from the obverse die - the specific feature is the vee in Liberty's hair, seen on the obverse picture to the left of the "M" and top right star. The line you see from the top of the wing towards the "n_G" in the legend, is the clashed obverse line of Liberty's neck.

The planchet stack only held maybe 25-30 planchets. The person operating the press therefore had to refill it every 15 seconds or so. They were pretty busy with that, as you might imagine. So, if they heard a clash (and I'm sure the sound was unmistakable), it was possible that they wouldn't be able to react fast enough to hit the footpedal and stop the press before the dies came together a second time to make what we call a "double clash," or even a triple.

There was tremendous pressure to keep on producing Morgan dollars. It took the Mint operating at maximum capacity to produce as many as the law required. Fixing a feed problem took valuable time; as you might imagine they sometimes cut some corners. If the dies were deemed still usable after a clash, they left it in place and continued striking. Sometimes, one die was left alone, and the other was pulled to have the clashes polished out. That's what happened here; there are clash features on the reverse but none on the obverse. The clashed obverse die got pulled. The "vee" clash on the reverse is very strong for the type; it's entirely possible that the obverse die got destroyed in the clash. I would expect the neck clash to be a whole lot stronger than it is for a vee clash that strong, and if either are that strong, there are other places I would expect to see clash artifacts. I think in this case maybe they didn't have the dies as perfectly aligned as they'd have liked. Therefore, the area of the vee clash took far more of the force than it should have, and my money says that was the end of the obverse die.

Great and informative description. Thank you for your time and effort. I actually used to be a die cutter for Josten's when I was young. I should have known what a die clash was but I always had my nose buried in whatever die was set up on my pantograph.

SuperDave,
That has to be one of the most clear and informative
descriptions of the Die Clash Process I have ever read.
That should be copied into an area of the forum where
If anyone seeking a Die Clash description they can
be pointed to it.
Thank You Very Much for that.

Aladinslamp,
Sorry for the delay in the response of the close-ups
Spring in Michigan gets busy.
Here are the close-ups you requested
I hope these help.

Terry