I am selling off my father-in-laws apocalypse hoard of silver quarters and so far have found over 200 errors and varieties. Ii has been a learning curve and great fun!
These lines are the result of (VLDS) die wear. You can see that often on nickels. Especially on the later die states. They are natural, not added to the die. If they polished the die the die scratches would be present along with die abrasion that reduces the fields. The devices will also show shorter height devices that also make the devices smaller a bit in size.
Interesting. I never have seen them other than in the mintmark area. What also stands out is at it looks like these lines look like the area the mint mark is on is shallower than surrounding area.
thanks Coop! I am amazed that was from natural wear. That also clears up why they aren't raised and causing shallows not raised areas. So if I may ask what does die resurfacing or refurbishing look like? So I can compare.
A couple of ways. One with a tool rubbed on the fields of the die. The fields are the outside part of the die, the devices are deeper into the die. Another way is by polishing the fields with a diamond paste:
Most of the time die scratches will affect just the fields on the dies. Some polishing lines may have done by a different process. I've always wondered if they used something like a wire brush or sand paper on the die, leaving these longer lines st different angles than normal die flow lines would be. These lines in time will flatten in the die with continued use. But where the lines at a different angle are next to a device or inside of a device they will remain for a lot longer in these areas. But the die that stuck the above coin is showing die flow lines near the bust area. So it may have been worked on to remove something, but not over polished, because the die flow lines are still there. When the die flow lines are there and the die scratches are strong like on your coin, then they are fresh die scratches. In time the ones in the open fields will flatten out.
The lines on the cheek look like coin scratches from circulation or a previous cleaning with an abrasive on the coin. (These devices of the cheek are deeper into the die, thus not usually affected by die polishing) I've seen marks on the steps of the memorial that look like a wire brush was used and affected the mid depth devices.
so these scratches are from human work not die flow. I am trying to get a feel for what is from Die Deterioration and what is from man trying to maintain the die.
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Posted 07/28/2017 9:31 pm
