I'm thinking it was attached in some jewelry with an adhesive displaying the reverse. Then it was removed and the adhesive harshly scraped off. My 1853 also has damaged but on the reverse. We could put our two together and have one complete!
Muddler - that sounds like a good educated guess, though I'm curious about one thing... It looks like the scratched out areas are pretty indented? Is this the case? Would it be possible to upload a close-up on those areas?
I don't see how it could be anything other than post-mint damage. Looks like someone tried to carve around the date, leaving the digits intact. They were less selective about the 12:00 area, making deep scratches across Liberty's head. Seems they went to a lot of trouble to make the coin both ugly and numismatically worthless.
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