defective planchet or die break?

[nulte]

Hello. I came across this cool 1944 nickel and i dont know if this is a material issue or strike issue. pretty neat how it does go from rim to rim, and looks like its separating on his jaw line. no cracks on the reverse side

[MintErrors]

The war nickels were plagued with lamination issues. This one looks like it may have occurred outside of the mint, since there is some nearby post mint damage along that line. It's difficult to tell for sure. If it is a line, not a scrape it could simply be lamination. If the line is sunk into the coin, it's probably post mint damage.
Years ago I was pulling out lamination issues from war nickels at the rate of about 5 per roll. They are pretty common. Condition is everything, but drama is what collectors seek.

[nulte]

Thanks again for the reply. I too noticed the lamination issues on the war nickel series as i was finding just about as many as you had run into, out of the 1000 I had, i DID find 3 1943/42 and a couple double eye, about 20-30 with lamination issues and almost a complete unc set out of the 1000. Ive been searching for the overdate almost my whole life, and i figured i found them this time around because i got a lot of them off a bullion site that didnt have time to check them before rolling or counting them out. Or possibly came from an ebay roll or two i grabbed from a seller that obviously had his coins rolled by year as i got a couple rolls that were solid dates. ILL take those 3 at the cost of a war nickel when i found them, about a buck and a quarter each! 40+ years ive been collecting, and i get 3 at one time. we dont get much chance on the west coast to see that many P minted coins out here, especially 75+ years after the fact.