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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,604 |
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Valued Member
United States
426 Posts |
Hello everyone! Is luster a good indicator of a coin being legitimate and not a counterfeit? I collect mostly silver coins like Morgan dollars, Peace, ASE's, Half Dollars and also Mexican silver like Libertads and the Cap & Ray variety of the 8R. The problem is that I do a portion of my buying on ebay and you can only go by the picture on the listing, in person I would of course weigh the coin, check the rim/edge, look at it under magnification but on ebay all you get is a picture. So is luster a good sign and a way of weeding out the countefeits or at least a good sign in a coin? I'd like to know what you guys think. Any response is appreciated. Thanks! |
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Valued Member
United States
244 Posts |
No! Cast coins won't have luster, but minted fakes will. And often too much. If it looks like it was just minted yesterday, it probably was.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Luster can be done with cleaning solvents, auto polishes, buffing wheels, etc. And sometimes on ebay even the right lighting can make a coin look fantastic. Sort of like the way a car looks in an auto showroom. Then you see it in real lighting and wonder what happened. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
Luster will only be present on a struck coin but it says nothing about the actual metallic content of the coin. Luster is imparted to a coin at the time of striking. A planchet is slightly smaller than a finished coin and when struck, the planchet expands in a outward motion until contained by the collar. For older coins that were not struck in a collar, the expansion was defined by striking pressure. The planchet expands via a cold flow process but it also erodes the die on a microscopic level. This erosion creates microscopic radial flow lines and these flow lines are what creates luster. Luster can be "simulated" through buffing or whizzing but it is usually fairly easy to detect with a trained eye as long as you have the coin in hand.
Judging a coin strictly from a photograph can be problematic though due to editing and not having the ability to judge the motion of luster in light as a coin is being rotated. Cast coins will not have luster, coins minted with inferior metals will usually have very poor luster, and of course, well-worn coins(regardless of authenticity) will not have luster either.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
And since most if not all of the fakes are now being made by striking, the counterfeits have luster as well.
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Valued Member
 United States
426 Posts |
Thank you all for your answers! Very informative!
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Valued Member
India
265 Posts |
all that glitters is not gold, in this case is not silver. Never go by the luster.
warm wishes.
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Pillar of the Community
Philippines
1156 Posts |
I often refer to luster as the icing on a cake, it isn't the cake but it does make the cake that more delicious   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1081 Posts |
I've sent several IHC for grading and they came back as altered color. They each had great luster, but were still altered. |
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,604 |
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Posted 10/18/2010 11:00 pm
