1878-P wing halo

[madbirder]

Just curious if anyone knows what this is. I've seen it on a few coins before but not quite as noticeable as this. Also looks like some PMD where someone tried to engrave the missing wing area. Toning matches so looks like it was done long ago. Possible that it was done at the mint to get an idea of where they wanted to feathers or is that just fanciful imagination at work.

[Vam-mysterio]

Old scratch PMD

[vamsterdam]

Tooling

[madbirder]

Tooling

As I'm not clear on what the tooling is could you elaborate, please and the purpose of it.

[vampicker]

Someone took something pointy and traced the outline of the wing in the field. As for a purpose, proof of ignorance is as good a guess as anything. Whole thing looks like it's been hit with a wire brush too. Many coins suffer the fate of landing in the hands of people that want to make them look pretty and shiny

[messydesk]

Someone took something pointy and traced the outline of the wing in the field. As for a purpose, proof of ignorance is as good a guess as anything. ...

This happens enough where the purpose is probably a boredom-driven, "let's see if I can trace this design without slipping." An alternative was that there was a dollar bet riding on whether they could or couldn't do it. The person attempting would then lose the scratched coin in the bet. Empirical evidence seems to indicate that nobody ever won the bet trying to trace the design.

[vampicker]

I like the barstool contest theory

[Kurt28]

I believe you have one of the earliest know works of Pugsley Fenderbolt.
While he never achieved the status of Master Engraver, he was able to make a modest income making love tokens and hobo nickels.

Love Token.jpg (107.51 KiB) Viewed 2136 times

[vamsterdam]

What jr and jb said.