I picked up a few Off Centered Lincoln Cents today. As you know Lincoln Cents have a smooth edge - I was shocked to find this 2001 to have a reeded edge. Any thoughts on how this happened?
I bet it is just on that small area and not all the way around. It seems like a reeded edge but it is not. It is damage as a result of the off center strike which occurred during the strike. Notice that it looks also a bit slanted.
paddyman98 : The coin is made of copper plated zinc and I do see some of the zinc on area's of the coin. The weight is 2.6 g. The reeding does go all around the coin - I found a weak area where the reeding is not so prominent.
Could it be from a counting or rolling machine? Assuming the cents were sent in a ballistic bag to an outside vendor to process for banks, there must be some sort of automated handling machines to get them into rolls. The Off Center cent is going to have a slightly larger diameter, so maybe the handling equipment caused the damage. Just a guess, but it seems plausible
Just saw this thread - As the Hoopseter just said, it's damage from a counting machine. I've seen many many hundreds of off center cents and nickels (mostly) with this effect. It's not reeding, it's not another error on the coin; it's damage from the counting/wrapping machinery.