What is wrong or right with this 1853-C Gold Dollar?

I purchased this coin a number of years ago in a Heritage auction. I saw that there was something strange about the "ED" in "STATES" but bought the coin anyway.

Would anyone care to speculate about what this is? Is it a mint caused feature, or is it post mint damage? I can post the obverse, reverse and a close-up of the area, but I can't show the edge because the piece is in an old style NGC holder.

The photos are from Heritage. NGC graded this coin AU-55.



Here are close-ups of the area.

 

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Is that a cud? The anomaly is half-moon shaped, is at the edge, has what appears to be a significant amount of planchet metal flowed up into the die crack just right of D, and appears to penetrate the rim at both locations. Also, the lack of dentils in the area suggest that the broken piece of die moved rather than force metal up into the die.

 

Withdrawn comment.

 

I was thinking attached cud when I bought the coin. I was thinking that somehow that part of the die pushed up instead of simply falling off the die and struck those letters into the coin, but others disagreed with me.

You have to remember that these dies were incredibly small and that this coin was struck in a collar.

 

PMD . IMHO . Sorry .

 

That's okay, Please elaborate.

 

Sorry . I'm not a coin Doctor just a Gypsy .

 

Nice coin, and super rare! As far as the what happened at the US Mint, to cause the "E" to look double struck? I think it's PMD over a die crack, over two die cracks.

 

Why is the "ED" below the surface of the rest of coin and does not appear to be damaged? If those letters had been pushed in after the coin was stuck, shouldn't they be flattened? Also there does not appear to be damage on the opposite area of the obverse.

This is why the coin puzzles me.

 

My first thought was cud as well. That doesn’t look like PMD to me. Sweet coin though.

Paging @messydesk - any ideas?

 

Planchet flaw in my opinion. Beautiful coin. tons of character, and nice color/toning.

 

I think there's PMD to the edge only, that's why.

 

Some sort of weird planchet flaw maybe?
@GDJMSP what do you think?

 

SensibleSal66, posted: "Sorry . I'm not a coin Doctor just a Gypsy." .

You are also dead wrong! You gave an opinion [Wild guess based on ??]. You were asked to explain it.

PS IMHO, to grade this coin AU-55 w/o mentioning this defect so obvious that it affects the coin's value is CRIMINAL! It should have been mentioned by Heritage also.

Hint: It is NOT a cud. Why? What's a Cud!

 

At first glance I thought "Mount Removed".
I think the "C" mint mark dazzled them

 

A cud is a blob of metal that results when a piece of the die, usually on the edge, breaks off. It is usually a lump a metal above the surface with no design detail.

So I take you are voting post mint damage.

 

Looks like a lamination peel or some type of mount was removed.

 

I can see the "ED" being as sharp as it is if the lamination was before the coin was struck. I can't see how it could be that sharp if the lamination dropped after it was struck.

The same thing is true if the letters were under a mount that was removed. Usually a mount obliterates the letters or at least makes them weak.

 

Nice rare coin I agree with some kind of planchet flaw,thats definitely not a cud and I don't think its damage.

 

A strike through of some kind?

Let’s hear the CSI theory @Insider