Here's a 1972 50c from a mint set which at first I considered severe post-mint damage and a loss--which would be tragic with the low mintage.
However, looking closer under my scopes, many features on these scratches appear raised above the field, and as a friend noted—there doesn't appear to be an interruption of mint luster by these marks. As pictured below, there are two groups of marks, all parallel to one another through the legends from edge-to-edge, and bounding the portrait on each side. Any thoughts as to the cause? [umm] I've seen die scratches before, but I'm surprised by the severity of this coin.
Following are shots from my QX5 with captions for specific details.
10X shot of one side:
A series of scratches, raised in some areas and rough elsewhere that cleanly run into the legends (arrows). If this were damage to the actual coin, I would expect gaps where the object hits the letter and skips off the field of the coin, leaving a break.
Another example of this, with some raised blobs trailing the letter:
More rough, raised surfaces:
One prominent, raised line (parallel to all other lines):
Rough surfaces with raised features interacting with the legend:
Marks trailing towards the coin's edge:
