1866 3cent Nickel Input Requested

Agree, larger and brighter pics would be a big help.

Haven't seen this in a 3c either. Could it possibly be a planchet flaw in combination with a very weak strike.

Although if that were the case I would expect a bit more weakness in the dentils. just thinking out loud.

Edit: what does the reverse look like?

No worries on the blunt part - this coin under a loop (or on my camera) is rough looking at best and certainly a no go if I was the buyer.

Several years back I received it as a gift from one of my children. So good intentions that unknowingly fell short. It has been in one of my slabbed coin boxes for all these years and I had completely forgotten about it as this is not a type I collect. During all this COVID down time, I have been working a few projects related to my collection and came across it again.

Luster - is so so.

Cost - no idea.

So long story short - yes its a mangy dog. But since I am not a 3cn collector it will serve as my one example, albeit not a great example, of that type of coin.

So that was the long version of trying to figure out what on earth happened to this thing at the Mint. It does look like die scrapes to me, but also at least one and likely more issues.

I've seen this a bit on Barber dimes, particularly from New Orleans. The striations across the letters are very similar. I always figured it was aggressive die polishing, and subsequent finer polishing removes more of it from the fields than the legends. The lines are so precisely parallel though. Seems like if it was a planchet issue, it would remain in the fields and not the relief. Could it be something with the annealing of the die? I think the "interesting" factor outweighs the eye appeal. Here's a 1901-O 10c example.