Blank Planchets Often Show a Lot of Damage

This photo, and the one following it, are the obverse and reverse of another blank Presidential Dollar planchet. As you can see, the planchet is banged up a fair bit. This is normal, actually, because it is expected that when the planchet gets struck by the dies and made into an actual coin, these scratches, dings, and other marks will get obliterated. In practice, however, not all coins lose their pre-strike damage upon striking. The mark of a real coin grading connoisseur is the person who can tell whether the damage on a given coin occurred before or after it was struck!