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I think it has suffered from some sort of environmental damage -- like a bit of acid that would settle on the fields and chew away at the coin.
This is as good a guess as anything I can think of. I have seen this before but never saw it on both sides. Perhaps it was done intentionally one side at a time.
The only other likely possibility is someone sat down with a tool and just hammered away at the fields. A better picture would probably show this wasn't it.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.