[CLOSED] LordM Giveaway #63 (instant giveaway: 1865 3c piece)

Update, 10/19/21: This contest is now CLOSED. The winner was announced in Post #59.

This contest is open to anyone who doesn't have a three-cent piece.

It is another instant giveaway, meaning it will be a short-duration contest, as opposed to my longer-running monthly "pick your prize" contests.

The winner will be selected via random number generator at or shortly after midnight tomorrow, eastern US time (so in the early AM hours of Tuesday, October 19th, most likely).

There's a catch. You see, it's a damaged coin. But damaged in a strange and interesting way. At first glance, I wondered if it wasn't a weird error of some sort, like a strikethrough. But as soon as I put a loupe to it I could see that it was affected by post-mint damage of some kind. It appears to have been affected by some kind of localized corrosion, but in an odd ovoid pattern on the reverse. My guess? It might have once been braised or soldered onto something, and later came off, with no trace of the old solder or whatever remaining on the surface of the coin. But I don't know. It's weird how it almost looks like a loop of string was burned on to the surface, though of course that's not it.

So anyway, it's got issues, but it's still an 1865 3-cent piece with decent details, from the last year of the Civil War and the first year for this type.

And it's yours for the low, low price of $0.00, delivered - if you win the drawing.

To enter this contest:

1. Just type the phrase "entry post". Multiple replies to the thread are OK, but only one entry post per contestant.

2. Describe what you think happened to this coin. This can be a straightforward technical answer, or an outlandish, bizarre, or humorous made-up scenario. I'm not sure we'll ever know the real answer anyway.



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Giveaway archive

 

Not as many entries in a 42-ish hour contest, though, so your odds are still pretty decent in the drawing, if owning a ringworm-infested three-cent piece has been your lifelong goal.

 

*applause*

 

Somebody gave that coin a hickey!

 

Nope. I'm a former detectorist, and while I never personally dug any 3cN, my local dig buddies have, and the environmental damage they got in the ground is really not much different from what you see on other copper-nickel alloy coins (like nickels).

If this were a ground find, all of the surfaces would be uniformly porous, not just isolated areas. And most of the time it would be much darker.

I'm guessing that heat melted something into the coin in those places, which is why I think it got braised or soldered or something, to attach it to another item. Another metal item. Almost as if a chain link got attached there, though if that was the case, I'd expect to see the "ring" more towards the center of the coin.

Speculation, of course. So who knows. But I'm fairly confident this is not a dug coin or a case of simple environmental damage. This was done by the hand of Man rather than Mother Nature.

 

Now you're cookin'!

But you neglected to tell us what color the mini-horse was... and its name!

 

If it was a female mini-horse, I'd have said her name was Neighdine.