Constantius II - What's Going On With This Portrait?

It's looks like it the coin shifted and it's was double struck.

Here's the obverse, photographed through my loupe:



And the reverse:



Unfortunately, this is about as well as I can photograph for now until the budget allows for a better camera.

The only evidence of doubling or double-striking is right around the ear, which leads me to believe that something was up with the die itself, rather than the coin falling and being struck again. The line underneath the chin is a crack, not a neck from a previous strike. There is a lot of extra metal right around the ear, which I assume is the rear part of the emperor's head. I don't see anything else on the portrait, nor in the fields.

From a couple quick Google searches, it seems that the current theory is that the dies were prepared through casting or hubbing--it's conceivable that the die hub was initially pressed into the die off-center, and then hastily corrected. This coin was struck on an undersized flan, so I don't struggle to imagine that quality assurance there was somewhat lackluster.

With these new images what I'm seeing is delamination of the the surface of the coin with the only part of the original surface remaining is the lower back of the head. The object the looks like a V is IMO just some fragments of the hair that didn't peal away.

After taking a closer look, I am inclined to agree.

I am still scratching my head as to how the original surface managed to stay in place in the exact size, shape, and relative angle of the diadem tie.

Maybe somebody, somewhere is calibrating their improbability drive