Thanks for the extra image showing the direction of the light source.
In the full coin they looked incuse but the closeups had me fooled into thinking they were raised. But since you have it in hand and knowing you would know what you were seeing I realized my mind was playing tricks with perception.
I'm not seeing any obvious bump or damage on the reverse in that area to indicate a hit on the obv (to remove any metal).
The irregular "crack" to the left of the larger incuse area could be a sign of an issue with the metal layers or do you think it might also be an irregular sharp edge on an object that created a "struck through"?
Words of encouragement are one of the major food groups.
We need to consume them regularly to thrive and grow.