2007D(WY)-25DER-001T Trail Die Reverse

Description

Found by Louie Ledsome of West Virginia, this 2007-D Wyoming State Quarter trail die reverse preserves ghostly impressions from a previously used die transferred during the die-finishing process. Trail dies occur when residual design elements from one die are inadvertently impressed onto a new die through contact during polishing, annealing, or storage, creating faint secondary images that appear alongside the primary design. Die markers place this example at Stage B, with the obverse at mid-die-state showing no notable attribution features, and the reverse likewise at MDS with no additional markers beyond the trail die impressions themselves. The Wyoming State Quarter, released in 2007 as part of the 50 State Quarters program, features a bucking horse and rider designed by Norman Nemeth atop the inscription "The Equality State." Denver struck 320.8 million Wyoming quarters that year, making this one of the more common State Quarter issues by mintage, yet trail die varieties across the entire State Quarters program remain relatively scarce compared to doubled dies and repunched mintmarks. Trail die attribution requires distinguishing the faint secondary images from die polishing lines, flow marks, or strike-through debris, which can sometimes mimic the ghostly appearance of transferred design elements. The Trail Dies cataloging organization documented this variety with their systematic alphanumeric designation format, where "25DER" indicates a quarter dollar error on the reverse and "001T" marks it as the first trail die variety for this particular date-mintmark combination.

Die Markers

• Stage "B", obverse is MDS – none noted.
• Reverse is MDS – none noted.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Louie Ledsome
• Expert attribution by Trail Dies

External References