what made this damage ???

[coppersleuth]

Hello folks! It has been a while. Glad to check in again, and I hope all of you are well during this Holiday season!

Not a dramatic new find here but would like to know what made the damage to the 1970-P Lincoln. It is sealed in a 1970 Mint Set I was reviewing, and there is no damage to the cellophane. So this happend before packaging.

For better light, the close-up 30x views are with the coin upside down. You'll see a field of damage which are similar gouges, left to right toward the rim, and gouging downward (which pushed some metal up, like a "wave").

Your help on what might have caused this would be welcome. Just curious. - Thanks

[coop]

That is a new one. I've never seen that before. I looks like damage as it is distorting the field and devices. Not sure.

Maybe it was your mother-in-law checking for gold?

[wavysteps2003]

Even though it is in the original cello wrap from the mint, the damage will be considered post mint due to the coin being damaged after the strike. It is curious though.

BJ Neff

[eagames]

There's a lot of coins in mint set cello that have damage from the machine that seals the cello, often it shows as lines almost like reeding on the top edge of the rims. I'm thinking this is something similar. Like BJ said it's considered post strike.

Sometimes people get the term mint error as meaning "it happened at the mint". In reality the premium for errors is mostly nothing if it's post strike regardless of being done at the mint.

The analogy is bag marks, they can be done at the mint but it's still post strike damage.

The other strange situation is in coins like patterns that were cancelled at the mint or modern coins waffled/cancelled at the mint which get some premium since it was intentional and shipped by accident.