Capt. nailed it - 2nd strike was with fake/false dies. See the two flattened rim areas? Not from the Minting Process.
@Puddin'Farts 1964 is a banner year for fake die strikes on nickels. Here is mine, and there are several others. I open to the possibility it could be genuine, but I know this one below is not.
The 1961 looks OK (even with the smaller rim dings), but I would have to see it in-hand to be 100% certain.
I can't figure out how the 1961 coin could possibly be from the mint looking like it is. Maybe this is something I have never seen , It would be hard to explain how it got this way. I think I may have figured out how it could be possibly a mint error . Strange things do happen
The lead-off nickel appears to show a somewhat weak first strike, and a very weak, off-center second strike. Such errors and error combinations are well-documented. In the absence of any other evidence, I'd say it was authentic. Naturally, any such coin would have to be closely examined under a microscope to rule out the use of fake dies.
As far as the flattened spots on the rim that Fred Weinberg pointed out as indicators of fakery, these are simply the impressions of the field portion of the dies. These do not constitute evidence for the use of counterfeit dies.
Hi Mike , I think what you said is correct and I'm trying to figure out how this happened. Could this have been caused by the machine being shut down . I know the coin machines keeps on striking coins under less pressure during a shutdown. It almost looks like this was the beginning of a jam up but the striking pressure was low on both strikes.
The reasons for sudden reductions in striking pressure are numerous and complex. The most likely proximate cause is a sudden increase in minimum die clearance. As far as ultimate causes are concerned, there's no way to determine them. However, it's reasonable to presume that errors like this are the result of spontaneous equipment malfunction. You can find double- and triple-struck coins that incorporate a weak strike in which all strikes are die-struck on both faces and all are generated by the same die pair. Combinations include a normal strike succeeded by a very weak strike, a very weak strike succeeded by a normal strike, or a triple strike in which only the middle strike is very weak. The combinations are endless.