Yup. I remember seeing something like that before... I think it was on a 1946D turned 1916D Merc dime. That accounts for the space.
I've bought from that seller a few times, only Jeffersons, but I was very happy with the coins, and their service. I agree the coin looks off, did you contact them about it?
Newbie question: how do they do that without obvious scratch marks? Or, to rephrase: why can't I see obvious scratch marks?
That should have been an interesting coin considering the 46-D was a Roosevelt. Finer and finer pumice stone tools, a buffing of the worked on area, and then a retoning of the entire coin. If you are good you can not only remove the part of the 4, but you can also move the "1" over to the left to even up the spacing between the digits. Bill Zach, who engraves Hobo nickels, did that once to show what could be done. He altered the 4 adjusted the resultant "1" and moved it over. He also removed the initials on the shoulder. The only easy way to quickly identify it was the fact that it had the wrong style mintmark. He did engrave copy on the rev so it couldn't be used for fraudulent purposes.
Yes, Dave is a very good seller, he is one of ebay's finest I don't think HE did anything to the coin, but it was at one point a 47D, or that is what it looks like
I've got a "14-S' with the exact same affliction, you can't tell until you get up close with a magnifier that there are scratches being covered up. Of course that spacing looks all wrong anyway, but it does fool some of the people some of the time.
Yep, I agree! Just one thing though, if I saw any coin like that, with the spacing that far apart, I would know something is up... I'd probably post it here first
