Messed up nickel. What do I have?

Dirt Player

Greenie
Feb 26, 2012
18
18
Panama City, Florida
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Vaquero
AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting

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May 2, 2012
49
4
Minnnesota
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV Metal Detector
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Looks like a 2001 (P)
Interesting how it looks though, almost smeared. I've seen a few coins look like this but they are usually much older.
 

mohawkman4081

Jr. Member
May 5, 2012
73
30
CT
Detector(s) used
Whites DFX or Whites Clasic Id
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
It looks like it was sitting in salt water at the beach I find coins like this all the time with this type of pitting metal detecting
 

mohawkman4081

Jr. Member
May 5, 2012
73
30
CT
Detector(s) used
Whites DFX or Whites Clasic Id
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
It looks like a combo of the sand and salt water over a long period of time
 

Arizona Bob

Hero Member
Apr 3, 2007
549
55
CA-AZ-NV-NM
Detector(s) used
Garrett GTI 2500
I noticed that the letters at the bottom do not seem to have the same kind/amount of wear as the rest of the nickel. I think that natural/sea wear would be more uniform. Worn die? Also less probable. The wear looks intentional/man-made to me.
worn nickel.jpg
 

GhostCoast

Jr. Member
Apr 11, 2012
37
11
Gainesville, Fl
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter Pioneer EX
Primary Interest:
Other
What you have there is rarely seen and more rarely found. It's a true P.O.S nickel. J/k, I have no idea, really....
 

Arizona Bob

Hero Member
Apr 3, 2007
549
55
CA-AZ-NV-NM
Detector(s) used
Garrett GTI 2500
It's not from sea water, and it's not man made wear either. The entire design is mushy and/or flattened, and that's caused by a poor die state. If this was man made it would be flat and there would be evidence of tool marks. I have several examples of this occurance and have seen many more. When a die strikes a planchet, the heat from the pressure momentarily melts the planchet metal into the recesses of the die, if the die is worn from too many uses, and has lost it's sharpness in detail, it will cause the design features to look mushy and muddled.

Using this nickel as an example, I don't see how your statements explain the result shown in the images. In a die, Monticello would be the deepest recessed part of the die. The lettering would be one of the least recessed portions of the die. I think the lettering would suffer failure equal to (if not more than) the deepest recessed portions. YMMV
 

CoinHELP!

Sr. Member
Aug 9, 2009
269
64
Ohio
Detector(s) used
Whites
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Using this nickel as an example, I don't see how your statements explain the result shown in the images. In a die, Monticello would be the deepest recessed part of the die. The lettering would be one of the least recessed portions of the die. I think the lettering would suffer failure equal to (if not more than) the deepest recessed portions. YMMV

I digress in my statements. The coin is most likely a dryer coin.
 

Last edited:

jasper62

Full Member
Feb 8, 2009
143
10
Georgia
Detector(s) used
BH pioneer 202 / garrett ace 250
The coin is one of two things, (1) it's either a commercial dryer coin or (2) it's been acid dipped But most definitely did not come from the mint this way.
I'm not an expert but thirty years of collecting error coin's tells me this.There is nothing in the minting process of a coin that can cause this but there is a million ways the coin can be damaged after the collar is released and the coin is ejected. It's "PMD" Post Mint Damage
 

dgrs2

Full Member
Mar 31, 2012
168
77
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Looks like a dug coin that was cleaned to me. Looks like someone tumbled it with sand then tumbled with jewelers shot. No an error that's for sure.
 

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