Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Is that one of those pennies that isn't covered with tar but is a retained strikethrough? ~ Chris
Lots of environmental damage. IMO, the lack of detail on the obverse is due to the environmental effects. Possibly something acidic. Even if there was some type of error, it would be impossible to verify with all of the damage. Spend it
It sat embedded in a asphalt roadway, reverse side down, for a couple of years and had about 20 millions pounds of tire contact on the obverse. So, it must be a mint error to allow that to happen.
I see these type of coins on a nearly daily basis during my walks throughout the big city streets (San Francisco, CA). I'm betting this is one such coin. City workers cut the asphalt when installing new traffic lights and sensors. After installation, they seal up the cuts in the asphalt with some black soft sticky tar-like substance. A coin happens to fall on it and car tires mash it into the black soft sticky tar-like substance, where it will sit there with rubber car tires running it over hundreds, if not thousands of times a day 24/7 365 days a year until someone (perhaps like me) sees it, takes the blade from a small pocket knife and pries it out. This is probably why on the coin attached, it is worn down on one side and not so damaged on the other, with what looks like some type of black sticky tar-like substance on the reverse. This was a lucky penny, for if this is accurate and correct, it was heads-up.