1971 Penny Is This Retained Cud ?

I'd say the coin has seen better days. The encrustation of verdigris all over the coin kind of gives you a hint of its history. Probably settled down in a corrosive environment for some time before being rescued.

So I'm a little lost is it environmental damage? It definitely has seen better days. To bad it isn't ms65 still but yea is it ED, Lam, Retained? Oh and the bottom section is a little higher than the top half

Based on the grade I suppose it matters little what it is. I still think what you see it do to a corrosive environment or some sort.

SuperDave,
I hear what you're saying but I feel the corrosion and a lamination together are all to coincidental. Thus, I'd have to guess this coin may have been thrown in a spot like a shelf over a washing machine where detergent and other solvents are stored and pulled off the shelf over and over again often dragging some liquid with them. I can envision a strand of yarn soaked in a corrosive being under or over this coin working away at the section that appears to be a lamination. I can also see the coin in a wet corrosive environment sitting over a crack in the floor (or what have you) where liquid corrosives can settle causing an effect like this. I can also see a coin falling into a sink trap where a strand of thread (or again yarn from a sweater) gets stuck against the coin for years. There are just too many things that could concentrate a corrosive up against a coin like this in one area where the rest of the coin is allowed to at least partially dry more often. Just my opinion, but I see this as most likely a sink-trap-coin. LOL

I have an almost full box of altered coins that I got from a CONECA member for educational purposes. I'll see if anything like this turns up.

I think I se now how this could point to E.D. oh well win some lose some. Better educated now

SuperDave,
You could be entirely correct. Mine is just my opinion based on at one time being a janitor to my wife's (wives') laundry rooms, cleaning out sink traps, etc. LOL! The reverse has a line that runs diagonally accross the Memorial building. This suggests the coin was stuck up against or between something. I'm still going to go with my wife's sink trap in the laundry room. LOL. With all this said, there could have been a subsurface lamination that the corrosive brought out like "Date Restorer" on Buffalo nickels. Who knows? Good discussion though I don't think we have a solid answer that is 100%.