Again PCGS always either over or under grading or missing the boat completely! To my eye they haven't proved to be #1 by no means.Yet the clueless still think they are the best TPG around.
I didn't really give it much thought when I sent it in. I suspected or assumed they were hairlines, but they do go right up against the devices, stars, and letters. Its just such a funky looking obverse. The reverse only has 1 small patch of die polish lines at the arrows. In any case, I was shocked.
There was a time that I was shocked too. But after it seeing them do stuff like this sooooooooooo many times - I got over being shocked anymore about 10 years ago. Nowadays, stuff like this - well, it's simply expected.