1843 Large Cent Error Coin

There's clearly an intense scorch on one side. Yet, there are clearly imprints on the obverse that give the impression of the denticles of off-center rims. Could a coin struck multiple times at the Mint have gone on to experience an intense heat later in life? Possibly, but that would be a violation of Occam's Razor, the Principle of Parsimony. For any cluster of findings, the simplest explanation will be the most likely. Rather than two unrelated events, the uncommon multiple strike, and and an uncommon fire damage, I suggest this: A group of large cents, perhaps in a bag, were subjected to intense heat, intense enough to scorch the copper where exposure was direct, and also to soften the metal so much that the coins deformed and left impressions on one another, just short of the point of fusion.
Anyone have a furnace, a crucible, and a good-sized collection of raw large cents, to see if the findings can be reproduced?

Ahhh, interesting. I happen to have all the necessary equipment to conduct a test such as philadelphian describes. I'm not going to use my few large cents but I might try something similar with wheats. [scribbles on the never-ending to-do list]

Darn, I was really hoping this ugly duckling would be a swan. I like it regardless of error/PMD status-- already dibs'd it when we were picking out coins to keep.

When I posted this, I hadn't noticed the three different types of 1843 large cents and compared this coin to the 'small head' variety, which shows the date in a different position-- led me to believe this was a mint error rather than PMD. Still an interesting deformity, wonder how it happened.