This coin has a perfect obverse and a really wierd reverse. The coin looks beveled on the rim. Cant tell what it is though. Please help . Tom
I've seen many altered coins that look like this. Any time you have a perfectly normal rim on one face, and a flat or beveled rim on the opposite face, it's a dicey situation. There are exceptions when one die is significantly more convex than its mate. That's what you see in 1985-D dimes, for instance. The obverse design rim can be flat (essentially non-existent), while the reverse rim can be pretty normal looking. However, I've not seen this kind of discrepancy on nickels.
I am even more convinced now that the coin was altered. Die convexity is slight in nickels of this period, so there is no obvious cause for a strong rim on one face and no design rim on the opposite face. Weigh the coin. If the periphery of the reverse face was removed, the coin should be slightly underweight. Normal nickels weigh around 5 gams.
Thanks for posting the other picture. Its always tough to judge without the coin in hand, but I trust Mikediamond's opinion.
