Red Schmutz

DeepSix

Recently won this 1875-A 5 Pfennig (seller's photo). Any idea what the red stuff is at the top of the eagle's left wing? Don't have the coin in hand yet.

mnemtsas2

A cotton fibre? You often see red cotton on Australian coins of a certain period because apparently they wipe down dies with red cotton rags. If the coin is slabbed then we've certainly got a coin or three back from our hosts with red cotton in them too.

Here's a PCGS slab with red cotton in it, look near the 1 in the date. There's two other small shreds of cotton in the slab too. We have another coin with red cotton right over on the rubber coin holder part of the slab, a long distance from the coin, which clearly indicates it's contamination from the actual slabbing process.

wybrit

I see that stuff on my new coin purchases all the time. It's probably from sitting in a red felt coin tray. It's easy enough to use canned air to blow it off.