1949S - Is this a die gouge or?

[JRocco]

Interesting placement on this gouge(?) on this 49S. Does this look like a gouge or maybe a blundered 4? Any opinions?
http://forums.collectors.com/include/uploadbox/viewfile.cfm?files=49sgpan%2Ejpg http://forums.collectors.com/include/uploadbox/viewfile.cfm?files=49sgpan1%2Ejpg

[coppercoins]

Looks almost like die wear to me...sort of like the type you would expect to see on the outside of the digits on a 1943 cent. I can't be certain on this one, though...never seen the same effect on the third digit of any copper cent.

What I can say with relative certainty is that it doesn't look like a doubled die, it just doesn't match up with what I would expect a secondary 4 to look like. When seeing this I imagine the 1954 cents with the little bar to the south of the number digit, and all the 1964 cents with the tiny little hump on top of the crosslet. In both cases the doubling touches the primary digit and is rather sharp in appearance. This is spaced off of the digit and is rough in appearance, like how die abrasion usually looks.