What exactly is going on here? Can anyone help me with this one? Thanks, Noobencil: http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/yy320/Noobismatist/CIMG5367.jpg?1278184268 http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/yy320/Noobismatist/CIMG5366.jpg?1278184500 http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/yy320/Noobismatist/CIMG5365.jpg?1278184592
Re: Reverse looks like a defective planchet (before coin was struck). Unfortunately, someone cleaned the front of it - that don't look natural.
Noobismatist, Very Strange looking, The first things I would check out is all the marks running across the coin incuse (dug into the coin) or are they raised metal above the surface of the coin ? I can see there are three that are incuse from the photo two just behind Kennedy's ear and one running from the back of his neck to just south of the "Y". It is hard to determine if the rest of the coin like in front of Kennedy's face is raised or dug into the surface. If they are dug into the coin my guess would be whizzed or just scratched to death. (People do weird things with coins just out of boredom) If they are raised then my guess would be someone went crazy polishing a die at the mint. The part that really strikes me as strange is in the third photo. The depression looks like there was something on the die when it was struck but did not affect the the letters "A" and "R" in Dollar. And it looks like there is a similar depression in about the same place on the obverse between the "R" and the "T" in Liberty does the front depression look like the back?
It looks to me like someone whizzed it, but the area in the 3rd photo is from where the coin was being held by something (perhaps pliers or something similar), which kept it from being whizzed. It's not an error, though. Jon
It appears that the damage to the planchet on the reverse occurred before striking, as I do not see any deformation to the last of the word "DOLLAR" and the "dot". Photos are not good to tell incluse or raises lines. But it sure seems that in several places the lines on the obverse go under the letters and not over them, but i can't be sure with these photos.