I know that the coin is not in the best condition but what I find interesting is the lettering in PLURIBUS. What would cause this? TIA
This coin is 90 years old and very circulated. Nickels are made of an alloy of 25% nickel (which is a relatively firm metal) and 75% copper which is sort of soft. The letters are very small raised details on the coin and coins are often struck by other coins and take all kinds of abuse. These letters are struck, moved around, flattened. A mint error would be something that happened at the mint before it went into circulation, one type of error would be the die that struck this coin would have to have the mistake on it. That didn't happen. It's normal.
If you mean the dent in BU, it took a hit long ago and continued circulating. If you mean the roughness extending up to the right from the top of the letters, that is from die wear/deterioration. If you mean the unusual distance from the back of the bison, that is from the die having been seriously polished at some time, possibly to remove a die clash. Over all the coin is normal for a well used coin from a well used die.
Sounds like a reasonable explanation. The coin that I posted hasn’t been handled over 23 years that I know of for certain. They have been stored in the old glass Gerber baby food containers. These two cents are just two that stood out from that particular container. Here is another one where Lincoln’s profile looks odd. TIA. MARK.
