Posted 07/31/2012 10:50 pm
I have seen other mint products where the frosting is way overdone.
The frosting can be achieved by laser etching, acid etching or sand blasting of the masked die, the fields are diamond polished after etching.
Whenever ANY etching is done, some of the detail in the area to be etched is lost. It becomes a matter of judgement on the part of mint employees as to what etching method is used, and to what extent the etching process is allowed to continue.
Frosted coins with mirror fields are what NCLT collectors are looking for.
In the past, a proof coin was made to the highest standard that that could be achieved. The dies were specially selected and prepared and so were the the planchets. There was no frosting of the dies, all of the detail on the die was retained, and the fields of the dies were not polished. Only a very few were produced for record purposes, and all of these are rare or very rare today.
The frosting can be achieved by laser etching, acid etching or sand blasting of the masked die, the fields are diamond polished after etching.
Whenever ANY etching is done, some of the detail in the area to be etched is lost. It becomes a matter of judgement on the part of mint employees as to what etching method is used, and to what extent the etching process is allowed to continue.
Frosted coins with mirror fields are what NCLT collectors are looking for.
In the past, a proof coin was made to the highest standard that that could be achieved. The dies were specially selected and prepared and so were the the planchets. There was no frosting of the dies, all of the detail on the die was retained, and the fields of the dies were not polished. Only a very few were produced for record purposes, and all of these are rare or very rare today.
