With the mintage being so high, I've made sense of this theory after coming up with info on Collar Mules/Emergency Mules. Probably typical, I'll admit I have no idea..can anyone explain the reason the collars on some Uncirculated 1964 Nickels look filed down or forced into place?
The grooves definitely have a noticeable pattern, but wouldn't the collar have to be for a foreign coin? Did the US strike any foreign coins that size with a reeded edge?
Found a plethora of foreign coins that I'll be looking into tomorrow but also, skimmed and read through the records of the coinage act of 1965. Interestingly, the nickel was a main focus for production. Little side info I noticed..Inco was mentioned several times through negotiation on removing silver from coins. Turns out Inco in particular was a monopoly as a main resource for Nickel from Canada. Found that odd. Anyways..the 5¢ pieces were rushed and well documented as being rushed to cover losses of coins taken from circulation. If there was an emergency mule of any variety for 1964, the nickel would be it.
The COLLAR is part of the press. What you are seeing on the nickel are "drag lines" caused to the edges of coins as they are pushed out of the collar. It is fairly common. You can find the same effect on reeded coins if you look between the raised reeds.
Insider is correct. These are lines "scraped" on the edge of the coin by the collar as it is pushed up and out after striking. In your images the side on the right hand side would be the hammer die side and the coin was pushed out in that direction. Any irregularities on the surface of the collar then scrapped along the edge of the coin as it was pushed out toward the hammer die.
So I assume this is common and it's just my first time seeing this? Makes sense and I heard that elsewhere today as well, just made me curious.
