This is a magnified view of the area around Liberty's ear. Notice the lines do not go through the ear, so I think they were there when it was struck. Is this a damaged die or a damaged planchet? ( or something else?) it is very visible with little or no magnification.
WOW great find!!! i believe that is a SNOW-6 indian head cent. an extremely rare variety/error. could i see more zoomed out pictures of it? there are a few other marks that would confirm it's a SNOW-6. i think it's easily worth $50-100 depending on the condition. however there isnt much of a huge market for this variety so im not sure how easy it would be to sell for that much.
and to answer your question about what would cause the effect... they are "die lines" so i believe it was a flaw in the die?
Here is the full coin. There is a flaw on her neck unfortunately. You can see the die lines on there parts of the obverse.
i'm' pretty confident it's a snow 6. i don't know of any other varieties that have those die lines. however normally there are a few more lines on the back of her neck. these may have just worn away. but yah it is a shame it's damaged; it's a nice coin!
It is the S6 Variety. The Lines were caused by a Mint worker using a file on the Working Die to remove some type of defect in the field, and it accidentally went into the incuse area leaving those parallel ridges on coins subsequently struck by that Die.
Thanks everyone for your help with this and the background information. I find this series of coins very interesting considering all the variety it has.
I agree--it looks like the S-6. In Snow's book, it's called a 1-star variety, with some collector interest and premium. I can't quite tell what's going on Liberty's neck--is it a shallow hole with dirt, or possibly a foreign object struck into the coin? Nice find!
I appreciate this conversation. I just spotted one on e-bay this AM. Nice timing, I needed that date, and this variation was available. The conversation has given me a few leads to follow. Thanks all. The coin was XF (liberty quite clear/sharp) and listed for around 75. Follow on question> Are the mark in front of the nose a die error also, and is this part of the same Snow variation? I will post this in another place if y'all wish to keep the thread separate.
