Surface appearance

[newprepper]

I was looking at a bunch of Kennedy Halves and for the most part the surfaces were pretty smooth, I came across this one and to the eye it looks almost like aluminum foil that was balled up and smoothed out, under magnification it almost looks like paint that has alligatored. What causes this?

[grip]

PMD.

[TomB]

Post-mint damage (PMD) that was possibly caused by use in a slot machine. If the reeding is also exceptionally smooth or missing then that is almost certainly the cause of the PMD.

[newprepper]

Thanks to you both.

[CoinPulsive PCM]

Post-mint damage (PMD) that was possibly caused by use in a slot machine. If the reeding is also exceptionally smooth or missing then that is almost certainly the cause of the PMD.

 

+1

 

I had a 1992 Kennedy half that was missing the reeding and with not as bad damage to the obv. and rev as yours. It went through a slot machine(s). If you look under high enough magnification, you might see some traces of the reeded edge. Mine looked like someone took a hammer to the edge trying to make a coin ring.

 

Coins like yours make me wonder how many slot machine it would have to go through to cause that much PMD.

 

-Dave