i need help determining if it’s a struck through or scratch. It’s pretty deep and no zinc is showing. The coin is in very good shape as well with minimal scratches.
@Alcoinsandcards One easy way to tell if it is a scratch or gouge on the coin is to look carefully to see if you can see any coin metal pushed up along the edge of the mark. I call this the "crater effect" because it reminds me of an impact crater. However, a strikethrough will not show coin metal pushed up because the face of the die will prevent this from happening. I think I see coin metal pushed up toward the southwest in your first image, but I'm not so sure about the other images because of the lighting. Here is a Kennedy with a strikethrough (probably a piece of wire) and you can't see any evidence of the "crater effect". Chris
I'll try again. In your first image, the mark is tilted northwest to southeast. If you look at the coin, you should be able to see metal pushed up along the southwest side of the mark. Do you see this? Chris
Many times, a scratch or gouge has a "pushed up" metal along the edges. This is due to coin metals being ductile. Think of it as plowing a filed. The dirt gets pushed up along the sides of the plow. Same way with a scratch, the moved metal has to somewhere. If the scratch is old and the coin circulates, then may get worn down. When a coin is struck with a die and has a strike through. There is no place for the indented metal to go (The pressure from the die is holding it back), so you won't see a raised edge. I didn't see any pushed up metal in your pics, that's why I think it's a strike through
Only the OP can say for sure if there is metal pushed up since he has the coin in hand. I still think I see some metal pushed up. So, @Alcoinsandcards can you use a loupe and tell us if there is metal pushed up along the edge or not? Chris
