Weird Coating On Mercury Dime?

I wish I could shed some light. I got it in a purchase. I can tell you it is not a paint. Do you think someone tried to do something like electroplate it?

Do we all agree this is post mint?

I've seen a lot of dateless Buffalo nickels where someone restored the date and then put varnish or clear nail polish over the date to preserve their work. The color of this dime is very similar to the color of the stuff painted over the dates on the nickels. It makes me wonder if someone dipped or painted the whole dime and THIS is how it dried. It's also possible that the waviness is a distorted fingerprint pattern...as in someone picking it up while it was still wet with whatever the substance is. The big question is whether that's a substance or the actual surface of the dime. I'm betting substance. The types of "acids" out there that people typically use to restore dates on nickels should not have had this pronounced of an affect on a 90% silver dime...and even if it did, I would expect the suface to be much more uniform looking - not wavy. If it's a substance, it's a good bet that acetone would remove it. And, as has been noted frequently in this forum, acetone is a coin-friendly solvent and wouldn't adversely affect the actual surface of the coin.

Sand blasted?

I showed the pictures and posts to my DH. He's in engineering and has worked with solvents and stuff. He says it looks like damage from a wire brush -- a hand-held brush that has wires going in every direction.

I'm beginning to think that the coin was found encased in something -- like concrete -- and then cleaned. It is a puzzle!

just carl -- I know what you mean. It makes me wonder if it was an error coin that got damaged.

I do like a puzzle and I just keep thinking about this coin...could it have been somewhat melted while it was somehow stuck in something like a cement block? Can't imagine how hot it would have to get though. Or maybe it got stuck in concrete and somebody used acid to get the concrete off of it... still it is so evenly damaged that I think that could not be it.

Studying it more, I think it's definitely a chemical reaction.

Les

The main problem with attempting to figure this one out is the numerous differences in that coins appearance.
On the Obverse, the top is rather clear. The bottom is all messed up.
On the Reverse, same effect for clarity in top versus bottom.
The the wavyness of the lines on that coin. Not easy to do this with any kind of dipping in anything.
Yet the most puzzeling thing to me is all the doubling effects on everything. No matter how or what could cause one thing just doesn't seam like it could cause that effect.