1974 Nickel - What's Behind The 7?

looks like a stain, environmental damage

Given the photos posted, I'm not seeing anything particular--just a nicely circulated '74 will all the circulation wear, dings/hits, and light crevice staining/crud accumulation one would expect.

The distortion is from extreme die wear. Note the devices closer to the edge of the rim, are larger than the same device closer to center.

Note the amount of die freshness was lost from when the die was new?





How bad can it get?












So seeing this makes you wonder how many coins are affected like this?

Note the numbers on how many coins are affected on each dies coin production. 54% of the coins are struck in this stage of the of the dies life. So to same these would be pretty much a waste of time. But save just a few to show to a new collector and how the coins change, and what they will look like. Hope this helps.

CoopHome : [b]What does die wear look like a nickel and how many coins will look like this?[b]