I've been looking through a lot of pictures of minting errors and couldn't find anything close so my guess would be something scratched it somehow. At first glance I thought it could be a minor die crack but through the loupe it looks to be a deep scratch. It just seemed like odd placement and depth to have an obvious explanation (to me). Does this look like something that could be caused by the die?
Definitely a post-mint scratch. Notice how it goes through the I in LIBERTY? A die crack wouldn't do that.
Although this is an example of a scratch on the coin, it is incorrect to assume that a die crack cannot go through a letter. Chris
As a general rule dimes don't seem to take damage as much as nickels and quarters do. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
Remember a crack in the die will be reversed on the coin when struck, so it will appear as a raised line, not a gouge or scratch. Something that is inset into the surface like this, if an error, would be a strike-through. This is a scratch though.
@RickO it look that way right? The placement and how once whatever it was jumped over the "I" it kept going. An error on the tool that pressed the die would have been caught in inspection before minting you'd think? I do agree with the call on PMD I'm just trying to see if anyone has seen something indented not protruding from the surface of a coin that was a minting error
Yeah, that was badly phrased. Die cracks through letters are common. @Jaelus has the explanation correct.
