Found this mangled 1964 Washington quarter in a bunch of miscellaneous coins foreign and domestic I purchased. Wonder if somebody did this just for the fun of it or was there some kind of purpose.
. I used to cut coins when I was a much younger person selling “Cutco” cutlery. I’t looked cool and was a great sales-pitch tool. I’m not all so proud of that action now.
Maybe it was used as a book mark ? It was some kind of tool. It held something in place from the vertical lines by the eye and 9
I'm not sure we'll ever know what kind of machinery did that, but as far as badly damaged coins go, that one is kinda neat.
Agree, the cuts are too regular (perfectly parallel) to have been made by hand. But if it was a shredder, it was the Shredder of Death. (Not to be confused with the Grim Reaper.)
As a matter of fact , I put 2 dimes in the tender of this one. Why because it was so light the tender wouldn't stay on the track.
The OP coin was cut with shears made for heat and air work. The tools have three blades that make cuts exactly like this. Some of the best are made by a company called Malcoproducts.com I use them all the time for circle cuts in sheet medal.
I used to work in a junkyard. A safe came in once with some coins in it. I didn't have a way into the safe except for the 500 ton shear machine in the yard that we use to shear large pieces of iron with. So I set the safe under the shear head and popped it open. Inside was a bunch of coins. There was a 68 mint set and the Kennedy half (of course) got under the shear and was literally bent in half all mangled. I still have it but I took and beat it back flat with a hammer to put it in a 2x2 lol. So that's how things like this happen to coins! Haha
Ah, but why? It’s much more interesting in its present state. It will remain a damaged coin, regardless, so might as well leave it as a coin with interesting damage rather than an interestingly damaged and then re-flattened coin. @dwhiz - if you cut up that dime for your railroad, hopefully it’s a clad. At least the quarter in the OP retains most of its bullion value, meaning it’s really not worth a whole lot less than an undamaged 1964-D circ quarter would be.
Why would someone do this to a coin ? "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men" - or women, or kids ? "The Shadow knows !" - but sadly nobody else.