I was just curious why this 1966 nickel seems to be missing most of it's ponytail. Can anyone explain how this happens? Thanks!
Most people will say it's a grease filled die, but I'm pretty sure it's from die abrasion. That part of the die was polished away to get rid of die damage.
I just recently discovered that it's pretty fun looking at coins for imperfections or old coins. I really don't know what those words you're using mean But I'm guessing you're saying that when they cast the coin, they had polished the die many times before to get id of damage, and due to that, the ponytail was faded away before the coin was struck?
The way coins are made is there are two round pieces of metal called dies that have the design of the coin on them, they then press the design of the coin onto a blank that becomes a coin. (This is a bit simplified)
IMO in this case I think it IS some sort of die fill. The elements around the missing hair part, particularly the date, are too detailed. It would have been hard to file away just the hair.
Here's another vanishing pony tail, though the coin has a weirdly proof-like surface and I can't figure out how to photograph it well. I'm thinking the parallel lines near the pony tail and the date show where the die was polished. You can see a die clash on the reverse - the indentation that curves up from the left side of the dome toward the P in PLURIBUS corresponds to Jefferson's collar. Perhaps the same clash left something especially noticeable in the lower right quadrant of the obverse die that needed to be polished away.
Interesting. The lines certainly support the die polishing theory. This puts in question my previous post.
