How can this happen??? 1972 Canada 1 cent

YQQ

Can anyone explain how this happened?
Is the coin now worth an exorbitant amount of $?
is it worth having it graded?
way too many questions for a broken 1 Cent coin..
thank you all for your input.
H

Sapyx

This is quite evidently post-mint damage. The way that there is a clear "fault line shift " at the A where the crack goes through it, demonstrates that the crack happened after the coin was struck. The stress-marks on the reverse, along the diagonal line where the actual crack is not (through the leaf and around the word CENT), show what has actually gone on here.

Someone has literally bent the coin in half (like a coin taco), with the reverse being the "inside" of the taco, then un-bent it and flattened it back out again. The stress induced by this unnatural treatment has almost - but not quite - caused the coin to snap in half.

YQQ

thanks Sapyx,
I thought about this and similar. it is one possibility.
However, one would have to apply tons of pressure and have to use a very solid and secure grip, like a vise to hold it while bending to achieve such a crack/ break. there are no vise marks or similar anywhere. and I blieve it would not crack "at the first whack" and back. there would me more and even stress marks. CU is soft and there is no evidence visible that bending force back and forth was applied to snap it. when the coin is on a flat surface, there is very little, minute, close to NO indication it was or is bent, except very, very little through crack movement.
there are also NO indications of applied heat.
Perhaps there are other theories?

Greenstang

My first thought was a ragged fissure
but I was wrong once before 😊

Aegis3

Partial agreement w Sapyx. I do think it has probably been enhanced post-striking, probably but not definitely intentionally. But I also think it started as a genuine defective/split planchet (which, I suppose, means it also still is such). The innards look like my US split planchets of similar vintage. And, I do think I see a slight Blakesly effect opposite the void, on both obverse and reverse.