1997 P What caused this?

[Rhubarb]

There is a straight line running SE in MERI in America. It is a 1997 P. Thank's

[coop]

The line you see is made on the outside of a die face. The outside area is the field. The devices are set deeper into the die. Thus when contact happens to the die face, you will see it through the field and not touching the devices. Thus it appears as a spear/scratch/scratches/gouges. So yours being stronger I would say it is a gouge possibly caused by an ejection arm gouging the die during ejection from the chamber. It is much stronger than a scratch and very straight in a definite direction. More of an educational piece than a real collect able.