This is an NGC AU-58 1866 nickel. There are additional vertical lines in between the shield stripes on the righthand side of the shield. Is this an error, or what causes this?
Interesting! I've never seen one quite like this? It could be the die wearing out, but I maybe wrong.
Wasn't there another thread on this nickel? I looked but did not find it. Could have swore I said I did not see anything in the cherry pickers guide. Maybe Ed Fletcher will find this thread.
I'm going to suggest they are file/polishing marks. If I am correct they were probably from removing the results of a die clash.
By "file/polishing marks" I'm referring to the dies that struck the coin. That means at the Mint and during use.
I'd like to see a better picture. I have three possibilities, an unfinished die where the roughnesshas not been fully polished away yet, a badly polished die where they have left really strong coarse polishing lines on th die, or three a major offset doubled die with the first hubbing way too far right. (And not fully impressed. The die shop was really overworked back then, shield nickel dies were averaging less than 10,000 strikes, and they let a LOT or obviously defective and/or unfinished dies go to the presses. Before 1865 the die shop was making 300 or so pairs of dies a year for all the denominations combined. In 1866 they needed close to 1,500 just for the shield nickel.)
