Think of the infinite ways a person, a machine or anything else can damage anything in particular. Also learn the minting process and what COULD happen in the minting process. Then exclude EVERYTHING ELSE as a mint error (that isn't helped by someone at the mint).
I sure don't think so, but weird stuff comes out of mint all the time. I also ask, where in a normal day of a nickel could this have happened after mint and how. That's why I asked this forum. Maybe I made a mistake.
Sure, take any harder metal item such as a single cut hand file, and simple roll it on a hard surface. Pushing the nickle down, while pushing the file to roll the nickel against the file. Did you acquire a bunch of coins from a singular person lately? Maybe that person was trying to figure out how to make money look like a higher denomination. Such as trying to make a nickel look like a quarter, or a penny a dime. Think of the money they could "save". If they went to a vending machine and an item was $1.50, and they used 6 nickels instead of 6 quarters they'd "save" $1.20. or 15 pennies instead of 15 dimes they would save $1.35 per transaction. That can really add up quickly. The USMint receives tons of damaged coins back annually. One category is listed as "Genuine coins altered to pass as another denomination" which are not redeemable.
PMD by someone with too much time on their hands. You can see the displaced metal on either side of each "Reed" That indicates it was squeezed or punched. Displaced metal like this cannot occur during the minting process. You can also see depressions on the obverse and reverse from where the coin was help/clamped. As you continue to study and understand the minting process, it will become obvious that this cannot be a mint error.
