A coin that has Clashed Die "marks" shows the result of damage that occurs when the obverse and reverse dies slam together with no planchet in the collar.
The most vulnerable areas to clash marks are the highest areas on the face of the die, and these are the fields- the area that is lowest on the struck coin. The "mark" occurs where the design elements of the opposite die contact fields on the affected die, leaving its impression.
Canadian dies are slightly convex and clash marks from an opposing dies design will always appear strongest in the fields closest to the center of the affected dies. The opposite is true on dies that are slightly concave, such as some issues of Canadian coins (prior to 1937) and currently by many foreign mints around the world. On these types the clash marks will always appear strongest in the fields closest to the edge of the die. On dies that are totally flat, neither concave nor convex, the clash marks appear uniform across the fields.
Dies that clash are routinely polished to remove this damage and make the die usable. Often the polishing will leave a "shelf" around design elements on the die. When these Dies strike coins, they may appear to have elements with extensions and doubling. Concave dies, convex dies and flat dies all take polishing a little differently from each other. The fields of a convex die are not flat - they are curved outward. When these dies are polished it tends to flatten the fields. The base of design elements, numbers and letters in these areas will sometimes appear as doubling and/or added and/or extended design elements on the struck coin.
Often it is hard to tell if it is polish doubling or Die Deterioration doubling - which is a fatigue in the areas where fields meet the base of design elements. These areas receive a large amount of friction as the metal flows during the strike. The carbon in the dies steel dissipates and results in the collapse of those areas over a period of time, depending on the quality of the steel used to form the dies. Usually both appear hand in hand as evidence of the dies late state in its life. A coin described as die deterioration doubling may include polish doubling as they can be very similar in appearance and sometimes impossible to distinguish how the effect occurred.
In the case of the "Extra Mountain" Two dollar varieties die clash type, the clash marks appear in the fields closest to the center of the coin, on both the obverse and reverse.
On the reverse this area happens to be right where the clash marks appear, leaving the impression of the Queens crown from the obverse die.
On the obverse of the coin, the fields are closest to the center of the coin, in front of the face of the Queen, where the bears behind from the Reverse Die is clearly visible. -Not Illustrated
The die deterioration type may be a later die state of the clashed die type. The damage here may be the result of polishing out the clash marks.
On the piece I examined it appeared the reverse die was well worn while the Obverse Die appeared "fresh." Perhaps the original obverse die in this case could not be salvage and was replaced with a new die. This type is also referred to as "Extra line" or "Extra Snowdrift" Two Dollar Varieties by some. *Estimated value $25.00*
I have revised this image -as the previous version was too dark and it was hard to make out.
This coin shows a very nice "Chipped Die"- These are small chipped off portions of the die, usually where the field meets an element. May appear as raised "blobs" or "fillings" adjoining design elements of a coin.
I value this coin at about $20.00.
Some collectors call this coin a "Horned Bear" and claim it looks more like a Rhinoceros than a Polar Bear!
This page accessed times.
Page created by: err@netcom.ca
Changes last made on: Fri February 25 22:07:16 2000
