The 1980 penny that I found has flattening of devices on the obverse and of "E Pluribus" on the reverse. The dots between the E and P are very flat, as well as those on both sides of "unum". But it doesn't seem like it could be "wear" because it doesn't affect all surrounding lettering, or "unum" that much. Although, features on the memorial building are missing. Wear is not likely the cause. I did find a potential explanation of water pump as the cause due to excessive spinning. The edges are a bit more rounded. I didn't find much else. However, I did find a similar, but much worse, penny from a 2 year old post in a different group. They thought acid or dryer. Both are not likely. Interestingly, that coin is also a 1980. Both are pictured below...
Good point. Both 1980's are difficult to figure out? The other person pondered a struck through grease? I wonder if they could be related strikethrough's of some sort? Grease? The other being an earlier version? I would have never expected that the only other similar coin I could find is also a 1980... Just idle speculation. Lol
No. They are not dryer coins. They do not meet the criteria. Please consider the entirety of the evidence AND the posted discussion material before making an invalid conclusion. Reasons why they are not dryer coins: - prior discussion, noted, dismissed "dryer coin" - dryer coins have edges that fold over and the coin's circumference is reduced. In other words the coin becomes smaller and fatter. That is not the case. If anything, these coins are thinner. ...and are not smaller. - my coin has the period or dots of EPU that are large and flat EVEN THOUGH "unum" and other lettering show nowhere near enough wear to expect the widening and flattening of the dots.
They are "dryer coins". Maybe not in the exact sense that they tumbled between the drum and shell of an industrial dryer, but they either tumbled or were subject to repeated impacts over a period of time. The term "dryer coin" is a catch all this type of impact damage. It could be a pump, like was suggested, but since we will never know exactly what caused the damage, "dryer coin" is the default. Copper is a soft metal and is easily deformed. IMO: True Dryer coins tend to have the rim pushed into the fields, leaving a "ring". You can see this quite clearly on your second coin. Hope this clarifies my use of "dryer coin" to explain a coin that was damaged by repeated impacts. Who really knows exactly what caused the impact but regardless, it's PMD. However, they certainly are not struck-through errors
