Strike-through or PMD?

[Immy]

1919 Wheat cent with these strange grooves on the reverse. Hard to see their depth with a straight on pic, and angled like this caused some slight blurriness but it's still the best view.

Obverse shows no corresponding distortion at all which makes me question the post-mint damage theory, so a strike-through is another possibility. Opinions?

 

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[enamel7]

Could be a lamination peel.

 

[huntsman53]

Could be a lamination peel.

Correct! It is sometimes called a Lamination peel but in the Error World, it is called a De-Lamination Error. A De-Lamination can be either retained, partially retained or completely separated. The really cool ones, are the coins which have a Lamination piece from a previously struck coin, struck and minted into them (i.e. Strike Through a Lamination piece)!


Frank

 

[Immy]

Hmm. Initially I'd ruled lamination out, since you can make out some of the lettering within the grooves. That led me to believe some foreign object got between the die and the blank during striking. If it was lamination that lettering wouldn't be present, but peeled away instead.

 

[enamel7]

Some of the lettering will still be visible under a removed lamination.

 

[huntsman53]

Due to the pressure of striking, the metal becomes more dense when the coin is struck and things like lettering, date, mint mark and details are kind of like super embedded into the metal (kind of like the metal is stacked from the surface to well below the surface). As layer upon layer of the coin is peeled away, evidence of the lettering and details will still be found nearly a third away down into the surface of the coin. At the same time, the lettering, date, mint mark or details inside a lamination peel, can be enhanced due to the metal where the fields (flat portions of the coin with no lettering, date, mint mark and details) are on a coin, being much denser and allowing the less dense lettering, date, mint mark or details to be visible. Sorry if this is confusing but it is just as confusing to try to explain it!

On Buffalo Nickels, many folks use Nick-A-Date to restore a Date and sometimes a Mint mark. This is possible due different densities of the metal and the acid eating the metal around the date away. For a long time, I used to think that the metal on and under the lettering, date, mint mark and details was denser than the metal under the fields but that is not case and is the exact opposite.


Frank