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Could it be a later stage die?
Yes. Since there coins were struck without a restraining close collar the outward movement of the metal was around the periphery and that was also where the greatest die wear occured causing the outermost features to be "drawn" out toward the edge. The points of the stars pointing toward the edge focuses that effect and causes the star point to be drawn faster than say the lettering on the reverse. But you can see the same effect occurring on the reverse at the tops of UNITED.