1936 Oddball cent

[coinguy47]

I've seen a lot of circulated coins that someone has scratched, but this one is different.



The "scratches" are raised- as if the scratch is on the die. If that isn't enough, there is a similar scratch on the reverse.



Have any of you ever seen such a thing? I'm not sure what to make of it.

Tom

[eagames]

I believe it's caused by scratches from something sharp.

If you took an x-acto and cut a cross into a coin then it circulates it will look like that.

Notice each line is like a ditch with raised edges. When it was scratched it raised up metal on both sides of the cut/scratch.
Sort of like if you dragged your finger through the frosting on a cake. If you look at the intersections you can see which line they made first.

The reason that most scratches don't look like that is because most are made by something dull and more like a scrape but this was more like a sharp cut.

It's post mint damage PMD.

[coppercoins]

I agree with Ed on this one with the most telling part of the whole thing being the scratch that goes through the 3 of the date. otice that the digit is not otherwise normal - meaning that the cut goes through the digit on the coin. If it had been on the die, the digit would otherwise be normal and the raised lines would go through the digit without affecting the "normal" 3.