2015D(BRP)-25DER-002T Trail Die Reverse

Description

Marking the second trail die contamination event identified on the same issue, the 2015D(BRP)-25DER-002T is the second documented trail die reverse variety found on the 2015-D Blue Ridge Parkway National Park Quarter — part of the America the Beautiful Quarters program (2010-2021) that featured unique national park and site designs across five quarterly releases per year. Trail die varieties occur when faint design impressions from a previously used die contaminate a new working die, transferring ghost images of foreign design elements onto subsequently struck coins. The Blue Ridge Parkway quarter reverse, designed by Frank Morris, depicts a view from the parkway near Craggy Gardens in North Carolina with mountains receding into the distance and a cardinal perched on a rhododendron branch in the foreground. Denver struck millions of Blue Ridge Parkway quarters in 2015, and the existence of a second trail die reverse (002T following 001T) for this single issue demonstrates that die-to-die contamination events occurred on multiple occasions during this production run. The America the Beautiful program's frequent design changes — with new reverses introduced quarterly — created production conditions where residual design impressions from outgoing designs could persist through the die changeover process and contaminate incoming dies for the subsequent design. Each design change required complete retooling with new reverse dies, and any incomplete cleaning or improper annealing during this transition could facilitate the transfer of design traces. Collectors should examine the reverse fields and design elements under strong oblique lighting at 10-20x magnification, looking for subtle raised or incuse traces of design elements that do not correspond to the standard Blue Ridge Parkway reverse composition.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Ken Potter
• Expert attribution by Trail Dies

External References