Or maybe a defective planchet. That's why I asked to see the edge. Some PMD issues are obvious. Sometimes we need as much evidence as possible to make a call if its PMD or an error.
The only mint error possible is 'defective planchet'. If this were the case, letters would be visible over the area of interest. But this isn't the case, the 'damage' is 'over' the letters, making it nothing but PMD.
Looks to me like someone put it in some sort of vise and applied pressure, with the edges of the vise being distinct marks inward at the each edge of the PMD.
