[JustinD]

Originally Posted by Michael B

They did not care about the U.S. Code in the 19th Century. It was quite common to take a silver coin (three cent piece, dime, quarter) and engrave it with initials and turn it into a charm, stickpin or momento to give to a sweetheart. I owned a few back in the late 1970's/early 1980's when I collected coins/currency. It was even quite common in the early 20th Century with Buffalo nickels. Just look up 'Hobo Nickels'. Wiki has an entry for them and there are quite a few images of them. If you look on ebay you will find quite a few listing for them. There you will see pennies, nickels and even Ike dollars that have been engraved.

I think you are misinterpreting my doubt. When I added that it was in reference toward it being modern because no one cared at the time. If you made this currently as an artist you may do a cya move.

The wear on this coin prior to engraving would likely not suggest it was done in the 19th century. It could have been in the early 1900s as suggested by the op. I simply do not know, I am only throwing out options. Other than to deface the obverse and show there was nothing but artistic reason for changing the coin I cannot guess of a reason to purposely remove the letter.