Please Tell Me If This Is A Scratch? - Jefferson Nickel

Actually I see two scratches.

To CCF! Yep, it's a acratch. It's Post Strike Damage ( PSD).

It is a scratch. Do you see the trench on that line. Along with a scratch you will also not two raised areas on each side of the trench.

That is where the metal moved during the strike. Sometimes people insist it is raised on the coin. Well it is with a trench through the center, because of the moved metal. Its like moving snow. Can you shovel your drive and not move the snow. (Well maybe with a flame thrower) But the metal is move. On a struck through coin the item that was struck through doesn't move the metal, the metal is formed around the object. So the meat is not pushed, raised or moved around the device leaving a raised area.


Note on this one the item struck into the coin, but did not make a wave or raised area around that struck through item. That is what it will like on an error.

But here is what it looks like when the metal makes a wave from something struck on the coin after the strike:

This is Machine Doubling, but you can see where the metal was that is now flat and where he moved to on a wave above the normal devices.

Note the side by side. A PSD damaged item will make movement around the struck item. A struck through item will not who the metal movement (wave) near the devices. So what you have is a PSD issue on your coin.
Hope this helps.