Looks like a small greaser on the drum,pretty common but still a decent find. https://www.error-ref.com/struck-through-smooth-viscous-material-grease-oil/
I am totally new to this, but I don't see any grease myself. Rather what I see is the tension rods on the snare are supposed to be straight up and down the tension rods on this snare drum in the middle of the snare hook to the right....
It is a well documented area of strike weakness in that area. It varies in severity but is common on business strikes of this issue due to it being opposite the highest part of the obverse relief. I pulled one at random from mine
I see a few minor scrapes combined with a overall weak strike, especially in the drum area. Nice bluish color so if that’s the true color I’d keep it.
If you allow 1 million coins struck per die pair, and the mintage of 1.6 billion over 2 years, then the mint used 1600 die pairs. …somewhere in that stack of dies the probability exists that some coins are going to be struck weakly and become damaged from post-mint handling…much like your coin…imo…Spark
Thank you everyone. I went ahead and ordered a USB microscope with camera and video built in. I will take some more pictures with proper lighting. I found some other things on this coin, but I think its best served to have proper pictures moving forward. I like the idea of keeping this one despite the damage, as the rest of the coin is better looking than the other circulated bicentennials that I have...
46 years in circulation. imagine what other stuff looks like after 46 years of use and never get any repair work FYI ... a "greaser" is when there is grease in the die itself not the coin. That grease then does not allow metal to fill the die crevices completely and thus the design is not as crisp and exact as it should be. But also, a die starts deteriorating as it gets used so details start eroding over time right as soon as it starts getting used (metal on metal is not kind). Thus the reason they use thousands of dies over such a short run.
Just wanted to say, your comment was my favorite! LMAO! I actually re-read it a few times and all I could hear was "I say Boy, I say boy!"