As I said when I posted the 1943 South Africa 3d coin, I attributed the problems to wartime production. But from that post I did learn that the South Africa coins were struck in Pretoria, not in one of the Royal Mints. The first 1945 shows a repunch/recut on the "5" in the date, inside the lower curl. Also note the die crack through the "A" and through the diamond after the "5". Also there were die cracks on the obverse. -- note the one from the rim to the "O" in "GEO" -- harder to see is that the crack branches off from the "O" to the "E" -- also it branches the other direction all the way to the "VI" -- there is also a small die crack from the rim to the top of the "A" in "RAT" -- finally I see a group of 5 dots below the neck; no real idea what they are And speaking of die cracks, there are more on the reverse than shown in the first image. -- from the rim to through the "O" in "SOU" -- a small one from the rim to to the "F" in "AFR" -- a small one from the rim to to the "A" in "ICA" The other 1945 shows a repunch/recut on the "5" in the date, inside the lower curl but not nearly as strong. But it makes up for that lack by having a die crack on the obverse that is almost 180°, starting at the "GEO" and ending at the "TOR". And not to be outdone, the reverse has a series of radial die cracks. The ones at 3, 5, 7, and 9 o'clock are relatively easy to see. The ones at 11 and 1 o'clock are smaller. I've had these coins for 20-25 years and have kept them because they are an interesting study of difficulties that can.
The dots under the neck are likely from pitting (typically rust) on the die, which transfer to the coin as raised bumps that look exactly like this.
That's what I thought they most likely were. But they were so perfectly round that I wasn't 100% sure. Plus that appears to be the ONLY location on the obverse. Sort of a "Why just there?" consideration.
