So I have this coin box of old coins that I've been meaning to look in for years. It's been in the family for decades. There's been some pretty cool stuff in it, and then some pretty odd stuff like this thing. The obverse looks sort of like a five dollar gold coin, the reverse says it's a ten dollar coin, and the thing looks silver. It's about 26.5mm and 7.4grams.
The letters have something weird going on in that there are striations in them (which I first thought were just blurry pictures).
No, there's no gold on it whatsoever. What you're seeing is a trick of the lighting. (I've actually purchased a ring light just for photographing currency, and it's currently en route).
Dies are worn out. The radial expansion of the planchet during striking causes wear and flowlining of the dies. The closer you get to the rims the more wear. You can see the same thing on some real US coins, mostly on those that did not have close collars. But it does appear somtime on close collar coins. One series that commonly shows it are the capped bust halves with the stars and reverse lettering drawing out to the rim. In the case of the OP "coin" they have really let the reverse die go way too long, and the obverse is also starting to show the same wear.
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