Who did this? And why?

ColonialCoinUnion

Thats what I always think when I see a coin like this - a rare and very valuable NJ copper (a similar piece, sans scratches, brought $26,000 at a Stack's auction not so long ago):



Was it some colonial era idiot killing time at some boring job by scratching the crap out of a rare coin ?

Or maybe it was someone who really hated horses? Or shields?

Or maybe someone's wife who caught them cheating and sought retribution by defacing a rare coin in their good-for-nothing husband's collection?

cherrypickincoin

Who knows? Maybe these pieces will be worth a premium in the future because of the historical "scratches", ah the mystery!

airplanenut

You found my coin! That's a work in progress!

Please ship to:

Jeremy Katz...

kieferscoins

That last sentence is pretty bad. Maybe another good reason to have a slab?

Cameron Kiefer

sinin1

could it have been pre-strike planchet flaws?

would need to examine coin closely in hand to determine that.

KlectorKid

they didnt know it was rare back then it was money maybe some one dropped it and it was steped on and someone draggged it accidently with their shoe?

wingedliberty

Maybe they are marks left by a shovel while digging up coins?

Brian

braddick

Either way, I don't find these old scratches as offensive as I do on Contemporary coins. In some ways it gives the coin character and I like the way the pricetag drops significantly.

cladking

Looks like the coin was scratched twice. Once before much of the wear and again
after it was no longer circulating. The older scratches seem to have less uniformity,
so they are less likely to have been intentional. It still looks pretty good considering
all the scratches.

Cam40

Its a case where the scratches lend creedence to the coin. They almost compliment the coin.

What a great find. It cleaned up pretty dern well too I think.

my3cents

Yep - those scratches definitely messed that one up.

I'll give ya 10 bucks for it if you'll pay the shipping?

ColonialCoinUnion

By the way, and as with most of the pics I post in here, I don't own this coin.

Skipper53

Who knows, maybe it fell out of some cavalry officers pocket and got run over by
a carriage before a sharp-eyed little boy picked it up and showed it to his coin-
collecting father. Hey, anything's possible!

BigE

Somebody did it with a knife, you can see by they way the scratch leads up to the high points and skips over the back of them-------BigE the CSI coin guy----------