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1968 Shield nickle - Die break?

I recently aquired an 1868 Shield Nickle that has some irregularities. It is about an EF. On the obverse, the bottom of the C in Cents is cut loff, thebotom fo the S in Cents is cut off, and the top of the S in States is cut off. Also, there is a thin line running along the top of UNITED, and the letters don't seem to align propertly. The reverse has no problems. Are these die breaks? or what? And, does this make the coin more valuable?









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Your coin is from the second reverese hub that was used in 1868, the "Hub of 1868". This hub was only used this one year and the master hub was used to make working dies directly. The raised line that you see through the letters is a die crack not a die break and would be unique to the one die that created that coin. It is cases when a crack develops in the die. Metal from the planchet fils the crack in the die creating a raised line on the coin. (A die break is cause when a piece of the die actually breaks off and falls away from the die leaving a "hole". This result in a raised featureless lump on the coin.)
The broken letters are caused by what is called a Hub break. The hub has the coin design in a raised format just like it appears on the coin. the hub creates an incused (sunken) image of the coin design in the die which in turn creates the raised image on the coin. In the case of this hub parts of the letters have broken off the hub, so the never created an image in the die or on the coin. The Hub of 1868 is well known for its hub breaks. Only one Master Hub of 1868 was used to create shield nickel dies and it can be tracked from it's perfect state through one broken letter, two letters, three letters, all the way up to seven broken letters befor the hub was retired.
Hub breaks can also be found on coins from the later Hub of 1870, but since that master hub was used to make master dies and working hubs, those hub breaks happened on the working hubs and there is no descrete progression that can be shown.
These cracks and hub breaks do not usually add much if any value to the coins.