What's going on with the obverse? I believe these are struck through debris. There are no raised edges, the anomalies are incused. The 6th pic shows a crooked line from the big anomaly to the smaller ones to the left. All comments welcome.
It could be. I'm in the damaged (PMD) column at the moment. An acetone bath might help clean it up a bit and reveal more detail.
The pockmarks. Their distribution and general appearance, is all I can say by way of explanation. Looks like the coin took some hits, is all. Strikethrough errors would look different. I think. Don't quote me on that. I'm not an error specialist.
Normally, when a coin take a hit the damage is not this clean i.e no jagged edges or pressure ridges. This occurs when a coin is ding or dented post mint. Here are a few more pics.
One of the reasons I tend to think of coins like this as PMD is because the circulation has worn away much of the tell-tale remnants like the "crater effect" you would expect to see along the periphery of the indentations. Common sense tells me that "dropped elements" cannot produce that many recesses across any device. From what elements did they become dislodged in all those little circular recesses? And, they all can't be defects protruding from the recesses of any device. Again, my common sense "kicks in" and tells me that things like this can't possibly happen, and it is nothing more than PMD. That's why I think some CRHers are just wasting their time looking for errors on circulated coins. ~ Chris
I assume that you are referencing the comment I made. I'd know for sure if you clicked on "Reply" first. How does a "debris strikethrough" occur? Grease and debris build up in the devices. The devices are an "element" of the design. Ergo! A "dropped element" is a strikethrough of grease and debris. ~ Chris
Can debris fall from other places like all the machinery around the coin. There are strike throughs that didn't fall from the recesses i.e bolts, wire and other miscellaneous debris. I was thinking metal debris.
You're correct about some foreign objects that do not fall from the face of the die, but you're making it too complicated. Debris that mixes with the grease is composed of fine particles of dust and dirt. Larger items such as metal filings, wire and pieces of fabric generally do not mix well with the grease. Too often people tend to shorten their descriptions (especially people using cellphones). A grease-filled die becomes a greased die; a strikethrough of grease and debris becomes a grease strikethrough or a debris strikethrough. As a result, it very easy for people trying to learn to become confused into thinking they are different things when they are not. ~ Chris