1946 Penny Cracked Die?

Probably a cracked die. Hard to tell from the image. But on a cracked die, the shape is irregular. This almost looks like coin contact. But considering the year and the bad dies from that year it maybe a cracked die. A closer image would help.

This is most probably an accidental PMD occurrence, and it happened not long after entering circulation, because the affected metal has been patinated over.
A sharp object has hit the coin at a shallow angle, and has left a 'plough line' along it's length of contact.

This coin may well have an edge bruise under 'WE'. I notice also that the rim has been damaged in front of 'I'.

It is a good thing that "Abe" was made of metal. He would have not have survived the assassination attempt otherwise.

The light is coming at a shallow angle from the top right quadrant.
It is illuminating a ridge, behind which is a shadow valley area.
The coin was struck at a shallow angle, from the direction of 6 o'clock, with a sharp object.

At least, that is the way I perceive it, from the picture presented.

Thanks for all the info everyone. Its hard to take a good pic. I will attempt better pics after work. It is raised but looking through a 22x loupe, there is no valley behind or in front of the ridge.

Could it be a die gouge?
John1

Thanks for the opinion John and Sel. There really is no valley on either side of the ridge. I'm going to really try to adjust the lighting this evening on my cam and provide a better pic. It's really wierd how the light is making it look as though there is a valley. When you say die has possibly had impact damage, what does that mean?

with Indian1 that it looks more like a gouge than a crack to the die.
I would think, however that since coining dies are hardened before before they are put to use, that the die has sustained strong impact damage, rather than cracking. Cracking at this point would be unusual.

If it were a die gouge there should be sharp edges along it's sides, and that does not appear to be the case. The sharp edges, along with a tiny amount of raggedness, would be the result of die hardening, from which there would be a tendency to surface embrittlement.

I believe that the edges would NOT be as just described, with impact damage to the die. The groove would have cleaner edges.