1976 P with ridges

[MaryJF]

I'm still going through all the cents I have accumulated. I'm now sorting from decades to years. Quite the job this is. In going through some of the 70's, I found one with ridges. It kind of stuck out from the rest when I looked at the stacked coins. It has ridges on the sides. '76 P

I'm "assuming" - and you know how we hate to do that sort of thing - that this got caught up in a dime holder?? It's not as pronounced as the dime, but it still shows up, and you can still feel the ridges. Should I put it aside, or put it back in the pile I'll get around to someday?

Thanks
Mary

[Bob P]

I would definitely put it aside for now. It seems unlikely that it could have been in a dime collar as the cent is too large to fit in there. It is possible it could come from some sort of counting machine, or home made. The grooves do not seem to be uniform enough from what I see.
We will see if anyone else has an input on this one.

[smed]

Maybe somebody was trying to fool a vending machine...??

[wavysteps2003]

What we may be seeing is that the planchet punch is becoming dull with age and starting to grove (similar to what we see in dies) because small chips are occurring around the hole. Just a guess, however, I do not think that the third die has anything to do with it, the groves are just to minor.

WAVYSTEPS2003