MDC-1c-1998-01

While we are relatively confident that this is a MAD clash, there is some confusion as to where exactly the clash marks originated.

Initially, one of the clash marks appeared to be in the form of a  letter “T” or “L” (see the last picture on this page).  However a close-up of the actual clash mark shows it could not be either of those letters. We’re not sure that this clash mark represents a clash from ANY letter.

This also holds true for the other predominant clash mark seen (see the third picture). This clash mark shows uneven depth and just does not want to fit into any of the design elements on the Lincoln cent obverse die.

With this in mind, we are left with the possibilities that these clash marks maybe from a different denomination die (mule clash) or that these are not clash marks at all, but some other form of die anomaly.

The coin studied was from Mike Diamond’s collection and was in a later die state (LDS). If possible, we would like to examine a EDS or MDS coin with the same clash marks in hopes of revealing other evidence to identify where these clash marks originated from.

Thank you.

BJ Neff