Educate me on this Shield Nickel

Now that I'm taking higher resolution photos and using a 10x loop I'm seeing a lot more detail on coins and thus creating more questions. So on this nickel, what is the jagged line across this the top of this coin indicated by arrows? Is it a lamination issue? A die issue? Or any of 100 things I don't know anything about. Thanks in advance.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Die cracks.

 

Die cracks, The shield nickel series is loaded with them

 

That is a classic example of a die crack the hardness of the nickel caused all kinds of problems when they started striking them is much harder then the copper silver and gold they were used to caused all kinds of die failures why they did away with the rays in the shield series it caused the dies to fail

 

Here's a classic round the clock die crack in a large cent is pretty dramatic

 

Is a typical Randall hoard 1818 I can't believe that die made so many without breaking in half or more appropriate a small cent inside a large

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Interesting Mainebill, about the elimination of the Rays because of excessive die wear. Didn't know about that. Thanks!