I recently found this 1957-D cent with interesting die gouges on the obverse. It looks like someone gave Abe a hairdo appropriate to the 50's.
Has anyone else seen one of these? The gouges are not PMD, they are in the die. The more I think about it, the more I believe they were purposeful, not accidental. Perhaps this is the wrong forum, since they would not be errors, then.
This looks like die grind marks. The mint workers probably removed some die clash marks from the die this coin came from.It looks like this die had plenty of problems . Is that a big die gouge going up the back of Lincoln's head ?
That's part of his hair extension, which doesn't seem like something that would happen under normal circumstances.
Update: I think I have discovered the reason these ducktails are scarce. I have found one that had the ducktail and most of the other gouges removed. Whether the original gouges were intentional or not, someone at the mint did not like them and worked hard to remove them. It seems they were definitely not the result of polishing clash marks. I have not seen a way to add a photo or I would do it. The only option I see requires a URL and I do not have any web-based photos.
