Hi, no trick question, no right or wrong opinions ... 1966 South African silver Rand with "tagged ear" According to records 400 "tagged ears" known ... Scratches on the slab ...
You have the coin. If the "tag" is raised the die was damaged (or marked at the mint for some unknown purpose). If the "tag" is sunken into the coin, it is a struck thru.
If it was a strike through ? With 400 or so . This would be a progressive strike through then ? I own about 40 from the same die that have progressive strike throughs and no two really look the same ...
If you blow the picture up I don't think it leaves any doubt that it is raised. And if you look at what the normal coin is supposed to look like - Well, it becomes difficult to even imagine what could have caused the die to become marked like that. About the only thing I can think of is that something quite hard fell on the die during a previous strike which was indeed a strike-though, resulting in a depression in the die during that previous strike, and whatever it was was then dislodged from the die, probably from it becoming a retained strike-through. And that subsequent strikes had the raised image we see on the OP's coin.
Thank you for your opinions, the "tag" is raised. As I only own one of these coins it is difficult to compare apples with apples ... The picture in Hern's catalogue is also not very clear for this purpose.
