If I recall correctly (could be totally off ), some were made that way (coin placed into the ring and then the design is struck).
Cent was not properly placed in the hole of the aluminum ring before the encasement was struck. You see this occasionally happen with the center pieces of bimetallic coins as well
Well now, that's an interesting piece. I did not realize until now that some of these encased pieces were struck with the "passenger" coin already inserted into the aluminum ring. Neato. A non-error version of the "horseshoe & clover" type, albeit from different dies.
Not reversed. The inside of the Encasement is recessed, so it would appear raised and correct-facimg on the coin, just as it does
Cool piece. As a normal, the strike is what holds the coin in the holder. Sometimes the design will show on the rims of the coin. I have never seen one where the coin was not in place when struck. These images are a bit more normal.
So, did the cent slide down in front of the aluminum (or pewter?) encasement prior to the strike, get stamped with the clover and stretched when struck, but the encasement ring was soft enough that the cent retained the e pluribus unum on the back?
Bingo. The blank aluminum ring is placed in the collar on the anvil die and the coin is supposed to be placed in the hole in the ring. The dies then strike the ring impressing the design and the inward movement of the ring locks the two pieces together. (this is why a coin removed from an encasement often shows a concave edge. The metal of the ring dents it inward.) Sometimes the ring design also overlaps the edge of the coin to help bond the two together as in the pieces that Idhair showed. In the case of the OP coin it was not placed correctly in the center hole but instead overlapped and lay on top of the ring. When the piece was then struck the four leaf clover design was struck into the cent. The aluminum is soft so the E Pluribus Unum was not wiped out and if the ring piece was available you would see on it where the design of the cent was impressed into the ring in reverse where the clover should have been. The force of the strike also stretched the cent out of shape. The flattened area on the obv of the cent was caused by the doken die. These dies have a shallow recessed "hole" in the center of the die so that the die does not damage the coin when it is properly in place. But since in this case since the coin was out of place it made contact with the bottom of the recess and the lower area of Lincolns' bust was flattened.
