Strange star shaped mark under the word Liberty

I found this penny years ago and held onto it because of the strange mark seen under the word "Liberty." Obviously it could merely be damage to the coin, but from the looks of it, it seems to have happened during the minting process.

What do you all think?

 

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Damage.

If a coin has damage in it in various places, it's best to discern everything else as damage.

Mint Errors are LIMITED
damage is UNLIMITED

what's that icky stuff on the shoulder ?

 

It looks like maayyyyyyyybe you have a little die crack right there where you think you have that star shape but like @Clawcoins said, when a coin has as much going on with post mint damage as your's does, then it's likely just a little more. I enlarged the photo as best I could and that's all I can see.

 

It does have damage.

 

I cleaned it up with a soft tooth brush and some soap. Apparently there was possibly old gum or something on it. You can still see the strange mark below the word Liberty but not as pronounced now that it is clean. From a distance it looks just like a stamped letter.

 

No die crack. What I saw, you washed off. If you think a coin you have has any value, do not scrub it with a brush!

 

He has sparkley teeth now

It was pretty grimey
So I think the cleaning was well deserved

 

Well, whatever that mark is, it's obvious to me it happened at the mint...

 

For something circulated, a Q-tip is probably as rough as you want to get. Don't use anything that could scratch the surface. And no corrosive solvents or chemicals either.

 

We used soft bristle tooth brushes and soap to clean critical contacts on aircraft electronics, I doubt that the soft bristles of a tooth brush could do much scratching of a penny.

 

You would be surprised. Wiping a coin with a piece of tissue will hairline the surfaces. These are big no-nos in coin collecting. Now corroded ancients - that's another story. But if you have a modern coin, the less cleaning the better - you want to keep the original "skin" as much as possible... unless you don't mind depreciating its value.

 

Maybe a small Struck Through object. Nothing really major.

 

You have much to learn grasshopper.

Really, the "after cleaning" images show the hairlining from the brushing fairly clearly, and they aren't the best pictures. The coin screams "cleaned!".

 

Every line you see in that photo after the cleaning was there before the cleaning. All you have to do is compare.

In fact you can see even MORE lines (that you are calling brush marks) in the picture before it was cleaned.

 

I don't have it in hand.
But that mark looks like it was a strike coming from above and displaced and pushed the metal down.

 

You can readily see the damage to the surfaces from the brushing in the pictures...

Anyway it's just damage. Did not happen at the mint. It's worth one cent just spend it.

 

The damage is NOT from a tooth brush (that is utterly ridiculous). The damage you see is from years of being in circulation, you can see the same exact surface scratches in the before washing picture.

Some of you are anal retentive.

It still has it's cartwheel, so... it's not that seriously damaged it's just clean for God's sake.

LOL

 

Granted... Being anal retentive does seem to go hand in hand with this hobby. I would never bat an eye at someone washing grime from common spending change.... The act of cleaning does have a permanent negative affect to collectible coins..... Sometimes us anal types can't distinguish the difference between the collectible and spendable coins though....

 

I don't see any evidence of luster in those pictures. Shiny yes, but not luster.

 

Obviously the coin has no value over a cent and is damaged so it doesn't matter if it's cleaned.

This is a public forum though. My point is to prevent a future reader from thinking they can clean a modern coin with a toothbrush like that and retain the numismatic value.