Canada 2003 Twenty-Five Cent Piece

Looks like a rust pocket forming

I think that it was a metal shaving/chip that was on the die or planchet and then struck through to the coin where it attached to the planchet/coin.

Thank you all for your responses so far. There are three areas where there appears to be extra metal.

1. At the front of the Queen's hair, a narrow strip of metal which, under 40x is folded in half and was laying there before the impact. In the picture above the dark area is indeed rusty. (dissimilar metal?)

2. No idea what caused the hole behind the Queen's eyeball but it is irregular in shape and filled with dirt. The metal "lump" to the right of the hole looks like it may have come from the hole but again, under 40x, it too looks like a thin strip of the same extra metal folded on itself and laying there before the impact. It does not look like it would come close to filling the hole.

3. What appears to be a gouge at 45 degrees through the eyebrow is actually another piece of the same metal. Under 40x, you can clearly see the outlined edges of the extra metal.

Do you think it would be ok to soak it in acetone to clean the dirt out of the hole?

Thanks again,


Gerry