I'm not sure what to make of this damage, as it's in the OGP capsule and never left it post-Mint (at least I'm assuming not). Anyway, the reverse near 3 o'clock has this gouged out dent. The part that has me stumped is that it looks cameo and mirror-like in that gouged out area. Does this mean that it's a die crack? Or, do PMD, bag marks, etc. display this sort of characteristic on deep cameo, heavy mirror silver coins? But, the interior isn't "polished"... not sure how that would happen. Maybe the planchet was damaged prior to being struck? The pics were taken with a USB microscope and the focus may be a little off. The angle shot was a bit hard to do. And, anything going on with the MM? Lots of Ikes have that blob "S", but it looks like something's running diagonally through the bottom half of the MM. And, the scratches that you see are on the capsule, not the coin. EDIT: And I know that the rims should generally be "silver" in color. But, there's a soft but noticeable copper hue. Maybe that's the nature of a 40% clad Ike, as some copper's bound to appear, right? I'm mostly accustomed to circulated silver clad Kennedy's in BU strike, and those have usually been tarnished through and through, so not sure what to make of that either. I hope I didn't end up with a non-silver clad proof variety lol. Thanks in advance!
It appears to be a strikethrough from a thinly-formed piece of grease & debris that fell from the face of the die. I have a 2005S KS SQ Silver Proof with a similar strikethrough. The reason I'm pretty sure that mine is a strikethrough is because part of it is under the "RT" of LIBERTY. Chris
Thanks that clears it up! I won't be submitting this coin, but for future reference, I take it that NGC/PCGS/ANACS wouldn't net grade for this sort of damage, right?
The coppery hue is normal on the edge. If you want to just verify it without using a scale to weigh the coin; the tissue test works well also.
