I posted this on the CONECA forum as well and Mike Diamond responded: It's an impression of a steel bristle from a rotating descaling brush. It was probably sandwiched between the obverse clad layer and the core. The bristle fell out after the strike or after rolling of the strip.
It's good to hear that Mike is back on the Coneca forum. If mike is right this would have to have happened during the time the planchet strip was being rolled up. probably what happened is that this foreign object was under the outer clad layer and when the plancher strip was bent to roll it up this bending pressure probably caused it to pop out and bringing the clad layer with it. if this had happened during the strike the foreign piece would have been pushed down farther into the coin and the outer clad would still be ther in my opinion. I like this coin . I have a quarter that has what appears to have retained aluminum pieces struck into the coin. the way I discovered it was that the struk in fragments remain white color the same as aluminum and the rest of the coin is the bright silvery color. I believe it is aluminum feeder finger fragments but Wexler says he don't know how we could prove it is aluminum. maybe Mike would know how.
Looking at it now on my home monitor,(and with the benefit of the expert opinion) It does look like a lamination type peal, with the impression of a wire. At work, I couldn't tell if it was on top of the surface or not.
