These photos are the best that I am currently able to produce. They do NOT show the depression as it appears to the naked eye (via loupe). I have marked of the approximate location on both sides. There are no visual cues to suggest that this was squeezed post-strike; I believe it was present in the planchet before the coin was minted, but, I am open to suggestion. Please spare me any ex-cathedra declarations based on images that do not accurately display the artifact. TIA.
Based on those photos, I really don't see anything that wouldn't require anything more than a wild guess and no basis in fact. Chris
Why would a worn die press the metal on the planchet in deeper? Wouldn't die wear result in the struck areas being higher? (Worn dies typically produce sometimes garishly expanded lettering around the edge of a coin. The more it wears, the larger the effect.) Less metal on the die means higher areas on the coin, right? This is the opposite. It's an "S"-shaped indentation, i.e., there was "more die" in that area, a condition that does not seem possible to be a result of die wear. I would think that if it were caused by an elderly die, it would be an "S"-shaped protrusion. N'est-ce pas?
