2009 (P) District of Columbia Quarter - Typical Die Clash TDC-25C-2009-01DC

Description

A typical die clash documented for the 2009-P District of Columbia quarter, TDC-25C-2009-01DC is an entry in the die clash census for this design honoring the nation's capital territory. The MadDieClashes naming convention identifies the variety: TDC for typical die clash, 25C for the quarter denomination, 2009 for the date, and 01DC indicating the first clash cataloged for the District of Columbia design specifically. The DC quarter's reverse, designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Don Everhart, portrays jazz legend Duke Ellington seated at a grand piano — the first time an African American appeared on a circulating United States coin — with the inscription JUSTICE FOR ALL. When the obverse and reverse dies struck each other without a planchet intervening, the incuse design elements of each die transferred onto the face of the other: the detailed piano keys and Ellington's figure impressed into the obverse die, while Washington's profile and the obverse inscriptions transferred onto the reverse die surface. These clash marks then appeared as faint raised impressions on every subsequent coin struck from the affected dies until the marks were polished away or the dies were retired. The typical designation confirms the clash occurred with the dies in their normal centered position, producing the symmetrical transfer pattern that die clash specialists can predict and map based on the known relationship between obverse and reverse design elements. Philadelphia's 2009 quarter production for the DC & US Territories program utilized high-speed presses where planchet feeding mechanisms occasionally failed to deliver a blank in time, leaving the dies to contact each other directly — a routine manufacturing occurrence that produces collectible varieties.

External References