I thought something JDLR about this Nickel and after staring at it I noticed there is no throat collar, neck impression at all. Thoughts?
Honestly, I have looked at it under 800X microscope and even in the pictures I see no trace of the "<" normally showing where the collar is. I compared it to two other samples with a year of this coin and they are not even close.
I apologize. Now I see. He forgot to put his under shirt on that day. You can see his throat since the shirt is missing! See the line of his neck?
It's a VERY beat up coin, someone could have used a tool to remove the collar, and then placed it back into circ. If it's a die that produced it, you should see many of them pop up. I say hold on to it. Hold the edges not the obverse and reverse.
As aluid said or possibly an over polished die where a technician tried to fix a problem in this area of the die and over did it some.
Actually, that's not totally correct. Sorry to split hairs - NOT! I prefer to think: if you cannot see it at 10X, it may not be considered an error by most. "Flyspeck" numismatics is alive and well, trust me.
So I have been coin collecting for years but until last year never really got into error coins or varieties so this is a learning experience. I joined the forums to learn from others in the "community". I use a 10X to sort the coins (it is a 10x-150x), for detail shots I use a 20X-800X which has better software and filters so others can see details better. I don't use 800X and I am not sure how far I zoom in when I am looking for tool marks or other "alterations" so I don't post something and waste everyone's time. Maybe it is my age or eyesight but while 10X can show me doubling, when I zoom in I can see the true extent of what's going on. I am curious about the details and like to photograph them. I'm looking for those who know to give me the benefit of their wisdom.
Removed through excessive die polishing. Not worth a premium and definitely not when the coin itself is beat up.
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but if it was removed by die polishing wouldn't it show up as a raised area on the coin?
On the die the highest part is what created the field on the coin, That little "v" at the neck is very shallow in the die. When you polish the die you grind down the WHOLE field not just a small part of it. As the field is ground down the shallow or low relief areas are the first ones lost
