2015 Typical Die Clash TDC-25C-2015-01BRP

Description

Cataloged as the first typical die clash for the 2015-P Blue Ridge Parkway National Park quarter, TDC-25C-2015-01BRP documents a collision between obverse and reverse dies that occurred when the coining press cycled without a planchet between the die faces. The MadDieClashes attribution service identified this variety within the America the Beautiful Quarters series, which from 2010 through 2021 honored national parks and sites across the United States with annually rotating reverse designs. The Blue Ridge Parkway quarter, designed by Frank Morris, depicts a motorcyclist riding along the scenic mountain highway near Raven's Roost in Virginia, with the Appalachian Mountains visible in the background. When dies clash — striking each other directly without an intervening planchet — each die picks up a shallow impression of the opposing die's design. On subsequent normal strikes, these transferred impressions appear as faint ghost images on the finished coin: portions of the Washington obverse appear on the reverse, and elements of the Blue Ridge Parkway scene transfer to the obverse. The "typical" classification distinguishes this from atypical die clashes, which involve rotated or misaligned clash events that produce transferred images in unexpected orientations. Philadelphia struck approximately 305.6 million Blue Ridge Parkway quarters in 2015, and die clashes can occur at any point during a die pair's service life, though they are most commonly preserved on coins struck immediately after the clash event before subsequent normal striking progressively wears away the transferred impressions. Collectors examining this variety should look for faint traces of Washington's profile on the reverse and elements of the motorcycle scene on the obverse under 10-15x magnification, using angled illumination that highlights the shallow relief of the transferred clash impressions against the intended design.

Attribution History

• Discovered by MadDieClashes
• Expert attribution by MadDieClashes

External References