You should end posts like this with an "LOL" or emoji so newbies don't mistakingly believe you and spend a life time searching for them.
No...that wasn't a "jab" at Mr. Weinberg. I didn't know him from Adam. After I made that comment, I Googled his name and saw that he is a celebrated Numismatist. I'm impressed that someone of his caliber would take the time to opine on a CT thread. Still...on the Sheldon scale, I rate my numismatic knowledge/experience about a "G06". Even so, I still take the time to explain my comments so the "F02s" understand. I have deep respect for Mr. Weinberg body of work, but just throwing out an obtuse comment with no explanation doesn't help anyone...except Mr. Weinberg.
Wait wait wait. Wait for the experts to chime in? Do you have any idea who you're saying that to? Bruh, I'm flabbergasted. What is your background in numismatics that gives you the confidence to tell Fred Weinburg he is wrong about your coin? Truly curious here, you must have a really high profile job in the numismatics field to say things like that to an expert.
Thanks to @Oldhoopster for his explanation of the Damaged Digit concept. I had never heard of it before and the OPs coin (based on my limited experience) appears like a die break or possibly a chip. I'm here to learn, not worship. I go to church for that.
It’s a shaved chip. Think of the tip of a triangle coming down as the orientation of it into the planchet. It’s a mint error as much as is any complete chip, which would have filled that entire void. There’s no way this happened post-mint, as it’s much too imbedded in the digit for that.
I've been looking online for any additional information on how a damaged digit is formed to give that appearance (as described by @Oldhoopster), but I haven't found anything, yet. Do you know of any references we can share?
Have you ever seen that digit completely plugged? Have you ever seen it partially, or half plugged? This happened the same way as the partial plugs you’ve seen, but for the chip oriented as I described. Do you have another rationale? I’m all ears, pal. Only more conclusions, I’m hardly persuaded.
Found this post in the archives. Note: The coins discussed are actually 1941 and the last 1 has been shifted by a rolling machine. It's also cool that some of the of our current well known members posted on this almost 11 years ago https://www.cointalk.com/threads/1944-slant-1-wheat-cent.103206/
On a slightly related note, here are some threads that show coins with PMD cuts that appear to be raised lines after being circulated. This is the mechanism that makes the line through the 0 look like it's die related in the OP coin, IMO https://www.cointalk.com/threads/1911-p-penny.332949/ https://www.cointalk.com/threads/1964-kennedy-half-dollar-help-with-marks-what-are-they.279284/ https://www.cointalk.com/threads/1883-s-morgan-is-this-an-error.52761/
That was a very interesting read. I have plenty of mercury dimes with coin rolling machine circles in the center of the coin. This is the first I heard of digit getting pushed around, but it seems reasonable...especially given that it's impossible for it to be a die error. I think I can see where the "1" used to be on the 1941 cent. Still, I'm having trouble applying that explanation to this coin. Perhaps, as you suggested earlier, this isn't a "push" but a vertical "hit" that wore down over time. That's the most reasonable explanation I've heard so far.
Thanks so much! Very interesting. If people begin finding cents with a raised "Y" on them, you'll know who did it! I gotta try it.