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What Do These Non-Glossary Terms Mean?

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 Posted 01/12/2022  5:03 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add Sharkman to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
A couple words come up that I think I understand from context, but aren't defined in the glossary. This may be lame, but any education on meaning would help.

1. Lapped/relapped.

2. Retoned. Is there a difference between natural and artificial retoning?

Thanks
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Australia
16806 Posts
 Posted 01/12/2022  6:21 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
Is there a difference between natural and artificial retoning?

The "difference" is in the intent of the person doing it. If grandma polishes her coins, then puts them in a yellow paper envelope for a decade "to keep them safe", is she deliberately trying to "retone" the coins? No. Then it's regarded as "natural". But if I did exactly the same thing, it would be "artificial", because I know that yellow paper retones cleaned coins, so my goal in doing this would be to try to retone the coin.

This is the problem with trying to use the "natural" versus "artificial" distinction, since the difference is entirely with the intent of the person, and "intent of the person" is not recorded on the coin itself. The chemistry is identical, and the results are identical.

A more useful definition is "natural" versus "accelerated", because "accelerated toning" uses chemicals that a coin is extremely unlikely to encounter by accident to produce that decade's worth of toning in mere seconds, minutes or hours. Bleach, sodium sulfide, sulfur jelly (Deller's darkener) and other noxious agents all cause "toning" that might look realistic, but is chemically distinct from "natural" toning, and will leave telltale residues on the coin that can be detected if you've got the right equipment. The other problem with these accelerated methods is, like Frankenstein's monster, they can get out of control, go unstable and wreak havoc. An accelerated-toned coin might look good today, fresh out of the coin doctor's box, but in a year's time it could very well be a corroded, ugly mess.
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 Posted 01/12/2022  11:20 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add kbbpll to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
My understanding of "lapped" is that it's polishing the dies. I don't think I've seen it used in relation to an individual coin, although coins are also "polished."

Quick search finds this from the Stack's & Bowers glossary:
Quote:
Die Polish

Refers to a "bright" or mirrorlike spot or area, not the entire surface, of a coin, where a working die was polished slightly to remove an imperfection, rust, etc. Heavy die polishing is a different matter, and refers to the entire field of a coin being resurfaced, also called relapping. Heavy die polishing sometimes resulted in the removal of low-relief details in a coin, while at the same time giving a prooflike surface.
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 Posted 01/13/2022  01:15 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add jacrispies to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
The term Lapped Die I am familiar with through Overton's Early Half Dollar Die Varieties. It means over polished die. It is noticed when some devices are removed, as in the "single leaf" varieties of the Capped Bust half dollar series.
Suffering from bust half fever.
Want to learn how to attribute early half dollars by die variety? Click Here: http://goccf.com/t/434955
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