This might just be PMD, but you never know. It seems that the odd places of wear make it seems more like a weak strike than PMD though.

Pretty neat looking but I don't think it's a weak strike. I think if it were a die adjustment or weak strike the highest points of the features around the center should still show the most detail and here seems to be the weakest points. Maybe a highly worn or clogged die or combination of things like that? Not quite sure though but I'd hang onto it regardless

If it was just one side I would say filled die, but with both sides, it makes me wonder if it's a die adjustment.

That's what I was kind of thinking as well. I think I might put it away for a rainy day. Someday I'd like to send a bunch of different coins off to coneca.

I agree having both sides show weakness on so many features would be strange for a filled die. I just didn't .. and still don't quite understand how some of the highest points can show up weakly struck and others look normal especially around the center ... but Ken Potter's page on weak / die adjustment strikes has a cent example showing similar missing features right down he center of the reverse so somehow it's possible. Still can't fathom how just due to the pressure the columns on the right and left have detail but the center columns are missing. How can the pressure differ just in the center and not in the surrounding areas? Same with yours, how can the eye, upper bridge of the nose and the chin get pressure but not the rest of the nose??? ... man coins are interesting!!!!

http://koinpro.tripod.com/Articles/DieA ... trikeQ.htm

OK I take it back, a sunken die could explain how this type of weak strike could happen ...

" A fifth cause of weak strikes are sunken dies. Pile-ups (brockages) can cause the center of the coin dies to "sink". When the dies sink it is like adding extra relief to fill in. Imagine a set of coin dies. the fields are flat (not domed). Each coin die has an image depth of say .005". The coin blank only has to fill a total of .010" in the design only, the rest of the blank is compressed by flat field. Now say there is a pile-up and the dies "sink". Typically if the pile-up was reasonably centered the dies could exhibit a concave design like a cereal bowl. For sake of argument lets say the dies sunk .005" per die, which is not uncommon. Now imagine this same set of dies facing each other. Not only is there .005" worth of image to fill on each die, now there is an extra .005" per die to fill before the fields are even touched. This increases the total depth of the reliefs to .020". Many times the centers (or highest relief point) of coins that are run with sunken dies will not fill in, looking almost exactly like a weak strike. I have seen people’s entire faces disappear from a coin after a pileup that resulted in sunken dies. I have a beautiful Indian 1 rupee from the 30's that shows this effect (as well as some matching die cracks from the pile up). There are ways sometimes to repair sunken dies, but most times a new set of dies needs to be made. "

If it's not a die adjustment error then would the sinking die that you described have more tell tale signs? Like the fact that you mentioned die cracks? This coin has no die cracks. The lack of detail is smooth throught the obverse and reverse. I would say that a die adjustment would be more suitible explaination. We will have to see what Daniel thinks.

Yeah not sure about the die crack part ... or the rest of it ... but that's wasn't my quote, I got it from here which I though was the same link as the original but isn't .. http://koinpro.tripod.com/Articles/Tria ... trkMoffatt

They explain six different scenarios which could cause weak strikes ... Die Adjustment Strikes (DAS) is one of the six possible cause of a weak strike. What I pasted above is the fifth possible cause they list.

Also not positive but it seems there's no way to tell for sure if the cause was a DAS or one of the others.