1941 What caused this condition?

[Barzilla]

I came across this coin today in a bag of wheat cents.

It is not worn in the least and the rims are high and sharp.

I cannot imagine what caused the blurred liberty, date and motto.

Both sides exhibit this condition. If it were struck through something
it would only be like this on one side. The wheat ears are very poorly struck, also.

Is this possibly just a case of extreme die wear?

I admit that I've never seen another like it

What say you?

[mustbebob]

This is all post strike damage. It is not anything that would have been done at the mint

[Barzilla]

I wish that you had this coin in hand. It does not appear to be damaged.
My local coin dealer if baffled. Say it was damaged, I don't see HOW it
was damaged. Can anyone provide a possible scenario? The date and
IGWT and the motto are NOT flattened, they are all blobs and look kind
of melted, but the coin exhibits no discoloration, either. Weird.

[willbrooks]

This is exactly what a very-worn coin looks like. How can you say the devices are not flattened? They are TWICE the size they should be. They are extremely flattened. When a coin circulates, it gets hit by things, which moves metal, which flattens the devices. Eventually if you rub and hit a coin long enough, the devices will be worn completely smooth and not be visible anymore. As Bob pointed out, there is nothing in the minting process that would create devices that look like this. It is extreme wear.

edit: Oh, and a local coin dealer being baffled is NOT an anomaly.

[Steven]

Looks to be what is referred to as a dryer coin, post strike damage. If you do a search for dryer coin on this site you will see several examples and explanations of this. Here is one link. http://www.lincolncentresource.net/f...ght=dryer+coin

[Barzilla]

Dryer coin. Yep, that looks about right. Thanks.

[Arjohn]

That is one beat up dryer coin....

[Maineman750]

Why is there this need to try to assign how specifically a coin was damaged? And why is there a sudden acceptance that it is damage because of a speculated cause?

Because inquiring minds want to know

On a more serious note, people are hear to learn...and teaching them that the cause of PSD can really never be answered with certainty is just something we are here to teach...it's what we do.