Nearly all of us are familiar with greased filled dies and the characteristics of struck-through grease.
Questions -- What is the composition (in general terms) of the grease? Is the grease used in the mechanical components of the striking chamber, and then somehow gets on the die(s)? Are the dies themselves covered in a preservative grease-like substance, and mint workers occasionally don't remove all the preservative before coin striking begins. Other?
In the printing industry grease is used to prevent rusting of the dies when in storage. We would use kerosene to remove the grease when preparing the die for use. Sometimes it hardened and had to be picked out of crevices. Not sure if this method is used in coin production but I would assume so.
Good question , I never really thought about it until now . I wonder if the greased coins still retain that grease while in the hoppers or do all coins get like an acetone bath and dried before leaving the mint ?
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