What Is It?

[Denny]

If it were a counterfeit die why would they cut off the stamp part of the die? Wouldn’t it be easier to just toss it out.  
 The U.S. mint would cut off the die stamp and destroy it. Yes maybe this one slipped by.

The US mint sells dies without the stamp they would cut that off and sell the rest of the die to the public. 

denny 

[Gold Seeker]

7 hours ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

The V-nickel only lasted to 1913, so maybe WWI counterfeit, but it could also be a legit US die. There have been cases of US dies stolen and sold on the black market. Some have been used to produce fake (not produced by a US mint) collectable coins.

 

4 hours ago, Denny said:

If it were a counterfeit die why would they cut off the stamp part of the die? Wouldn’t it be easier to just toss it out.  
 The U.S. mint would cut off the die stamp and destroy it. Yes maybe this one slipped by.

The US mint sells dies without the stamp they would cut that off and sell the rest of the die to the public. 

denny 

I don't think it's any part of an official die, it could be from a counterfeit die but if so wasn't very well done since it seems it's off centered to my eye.

I'm not sure if everyone knows but a coin die is a "rod", (not just a thin piece of metal like this one, the rod is for strength when the coin get stamped so the image doesn't get distorted), with the reverse impression of the coin engraved into the end of the rod and there's a die for each side, so if this was ever a die it was indeed cut off the rod.

 

[Denny]

Cleaned it up a bit.

Looks like it was tossed in a fire.