Jefferson Nickel Strike Through

First the gouge on the planchet would be removed by the setup process and then striking would remove a normal mar on the planchet, unless it was real strong. But when we mention gouge, it would be on the die and not on the coin. The gouge would be raised like a die crack but wider. On your coin the mark is incuse, not raised. Because of the obstruction of the wire (?) it would make a mark into the coin, not into the die and usually fall out before next strike. It is an error as it usually happens just once. The rest of the coins after that would be unaffected, just your one coin. It would be like if you took a coin and a small finishing nail and clamped them into a vise. The vise would probably be unaffected as it is hard steel, the coin would be affected because the the steel nail. But the outside edges of your coin would suffer from the pressure of the vise. On your coin, you only see the incuse mark because of the pressure applied was in the shape of the obverse and reverse. When you look at the incuse areas on the reverse you see the metal is pushed in with circular groves. That shows that the object struck through was round. If you took a Cent and made a mark on it with a nail, you would not see the roundness of the incuse area. Just lines that showed the sharpness of the point. Not on my coin you can see where the wire turned and went through devices and left the incuse area. That is what I see on your coin. Does that help? If not, ask another question.

Sorry, but I still think it is post strike damage. Now as I look at it I also see damage to the base of the building beside the mark. Hopefully Bill, Mike or one of the other experts will see this and help out.

SeattleMD

If there were a gouge in the planchet prestrike, the fields of the die would crush and flatten the surface of the planchet until they reached the same level as the bottom of the gouge. Also as the metal was compressed it would flow sideways into the gouge area. In effect it would prety much wipe out the gouge in the area of the fields. In the detail areas there would be less pressure and the pre-strike gouge could possibly survive the striking. (This is the case with adjustment marks on early US coins. The planchets were filed before striking and the file marks can often be seen in the devices but are often gone or seen in a crushed form in the fields.)

If the object stays imbedded in the planchet and then falls out post strike it will look almost identical to a regular strikethrough.

It was struck through a rim burr. That's a fang-like spur of metal that's torn from the planchet's surface some time before the strike.

Thanks again Mike - did you happen to come over here by chance at the same time I posted on CONECA forums, or did you recognize my name and come over to see if I had a thread open on it?

Seattle: Sometimes when we think of gouges/cracks/damage we forget how much the magnification of objects make them a lot larger than they really are. Just a comparison to show minor some marks are and what size the object must be to make a mark that small.

Mike: Rim burr. That is a first time I've heard of that, but I knew there had to be an obstruction between the die and the planchet to leave marks that way. Helps the pieces come together better in mind. Thanks.

Mike - I don't suppose you have photos of those specimens available online that I could look at?