"Micro-Numismatics" Quiz #6 ANSWERED

Insider2

Sorry, no prizes

I am going to be posting micrographs of anything that can be found on coins. Some will be easy and some will not. The correct answer is whatever I say it is but feel free to disagree (giving your reason) so all of us can discuss it. Images will be posted in this thread at my discretion - several each week. I will usually post the answers late the next day after the quiz was posted.

In order to make this FUN for beginners. I'll ask the "experts" to PLEASE not guess what any of the images are until the next day. Otherwise, folks like (fill in the blank) will get all of them immediately - That's NO FUN. If no correct answer is given by the next day, the "experts" should PLEASE respond. The answer for each image will usually be posted in the afternoon when I add another image.

The Rules:

1. Anyone can guess. That's because even an incorrect guess can open further discussion as to why it is incorrect.

   2. The BEST guess is in two parts:

   A. What characteristic the image shows.
   B. What did you see in the image that lead to your guess.

The Image:

Spots can occur on coins for several reasons. Since they are often distracting, they may lower the eye appeal and grade if they are noticeable due to size and location. This coin has a "target" shape spot. What are some of the things that can cause a coin's surface to form a spot? What do we call the discolored area around this spot's center?

AUandAG

Spot remained untoned due to a liquid previously on the dime?

bob

asheland

I'll sit back on this one. Not sure of the answer.

cmerlo1

It's a spitspot- someone talking while holding the coin. Being round, it looks like a droplet landed on the coin.

Aspie_Rocco

I once read an article concerning the reason a coffe drop dries in a ring or circle, not a dot, on hard surfaces. Yes I like obscure details.

Something about how the particles in the liquid migrate to the edges as drying occurs, and the build up draws on the remaining liquid like a wick as evaporation happens. This effect leaves a ring when dried out

Something similar happened here I would guess.

Smudge

Bubble spot?

Hemispherical

Changed the color dynamics.

Mercury dime (reverse, blade of axe head) composition is 90silver/10copper.

As mentioned previously it appears to be some type of liquid droplet, but I will advance this further by saying it was a viscous liquid droplet.

The outer edges dried first to form the lighter colored discoloration. The center portion did not dry as quickly but had sufficient time to react in/on the metal to form a darker spot/pitting into the coin.

This leads me think it might be a carbon spot.

I have no idea what the area around the spot is called; other than the “perimeter” of the carbon spot.

Edited to ask a quesion: I do not normally look at coins at this level of magnification, but are those flow lines that appear to be radiating outward?

Insider2

@Hemispherical said: "Changed the color dynamics."

Edited to ask a quesion: I do not normally look at coins at this level of magnification, but are those flow lines that appear to be radiating outward?

That's very unfortunate because you have removed a clue! I hope others return to this original as posted version.

Hardly anyone looks at coins at over 16X (which is way too much). What I have found is that by looking at the surfaces of coins with two eyes and florescent light at 7X and higher (this image approx. 30X) I'm able to recognize things IMMEDIATELY with a low power hand lens while I listen to others question/argue over what a characteristic they see is. It is comical! There are flow lines on the dime's surface; however, the two long dark lines are not.

Aspie_Rocco

Is it a ghost O on a double struck coin? I keep imagining the O of ONE or OF.
Or to go as far as a die clash with a Zero from the obverse.

BJandTundra

Possibly a planchet flaw. The circular pattern seems to have been deformed by the intrusion of the raised leaf device and the two dark lines might be a different manifestation of the flaw. An occlusion perhaps. (Trapped gas under the surface of the metal.)

Insider2

It's not trapped gas which usually is raised, smooth and rounded. Not a ghost "O" either due to its size, location and discoloration, besides I already posted that it was a spot. Planchet flaw might be a possibility. Cannot be a bubble as it is not raised; however, a bubble of liquid could make something like it after it dried.

I'll post the answer Monday but there is something in the image no one is seeing. Calling in the "experts."

Hemispherical

Took a break. Now looking again.

I addition to my previous post, I observe:

—two darker lines, one traversing the SW perimeter of the mystery circle and the other through the circle and both lines traveling SE-NW to the “S” in states
—appears to be a dark shadow at the bottom tip of the axe blade with a shape of a leaf
—the blade of the leaf that points into the circle has what appears to be abrasions
—in the fields there many dark spots, N and SE of the “D”; bottom of “T” and on top at the N end of the axe blade; these spots have a similar color as the center of the circle

That circle bugs me and I do not what it is so I cannot figure out how it occurred; and the additional observations did not help.

Await the experts.

.....

In the medical world I would say it looks like the later stages of a black widow spider bite on a gold skinned extraterrestrial with a tattoo of the reverse of a Mercury dime. 😳

georgiacop50

@Insider2 said:
@Hemispherical said: "Changed the color dynamics."

That's very unfortunate because you have removed a clue! I hope others return to this original as posted version.

And THAT is a clue unto itself!! I am turning green!

Hemispherical

@georgiacop50 said:

@Insider2 said:
@Hemispherical said: "Changed the color dynamics."

That's very unfortunate because you have removed a clue! I hope others return to this original as posted version.

And THAT is a clue unto itself!! I am turning green!

Verdigris? And I totally blew over my own comment about the composition, “90silver/10copper.”

Argh!

thefinn

Looks like spittle droplets. Someone was talking over their coins.

Kkathyl

First thought is sign of alteration but close up looks like some sort of spot disease. Yikes

Smudge

Is that a face?

AUandAG

Halloween is over @insider2. No ghosts involved. Those two dark lines look strangely parallel and there is a "something" worm like in the lower right of the image. Hmmmmm, ah too late to think.

bob

Coinscratch

The pattern of the image seems to flow across the top of the leaf, almost looks like black ink burned in from a littleton coin package on the leaf where it actually touched and the rest of the pattern where there was no contact was caused by less tarnishing over time.

Insider2

Answer on Monday when I post a "before" image.

Coinscratch

And of course there is an image at the bottom of the the blade that resembles one the top leaves but the distance between it and the D are not identical.

Insider2

this is about the target shaped spot, that's all.

Coinscratch

I need to go back to the first 5 that I missed, to see if I can deduce from your previous clues on those subjects. Because you are leaving a lot to imagine

Insider2

@CoinscratchFever said:
I need to go back to the first 5 that I missed, to see if I can deduce from your previous clues on those subjects. Because you are leaving a lot to imagine

There are two ways to pass on information here:

1. Post an image and explain it.
2. Post an image and have folks guess.

I prefer the second as they need to think of the possibilities. My favorite approach is #2 with a curveball.
I tried this twice in another forum and the Boo Birds and whinners accused me of being smug and conceited by trying to show them up or embarrass them for their incorrect answers. That was not the case; nevertheless, IMO by asking them to grade a coin without telling them its a counterfeit (it can be done) was very educational. Sooner or later, a member would see that it was a fake and they could learn what to look for.

Coinscratch

@Insider2 ...People like that will criticize you either way 1. or 2. Now, that you have brought 2. to light, I prefer it as well. Keep em coming.

Insider2

Then I may throw a curve at you all in a few months...

Unfortunately, my images are not on my home computer or I would start another discussion today. I suppose I can learn to use a thumb drive if that's what they are called. To think I once laughed at my mother because she couldn't work a VCR. Now I don't even know how to record cable shows or operate a computer. Guess she had more important things to keep in her mind. I cannot use that excuse.

Insider2

Here is a clue as to the cause of the spot. What do we call the "target" discoloration that was removed leaving just a few tiny pieces behind in the center of the spot?

AUandAG

Organic matter splattered onto the surface. The halo is the migration of the active enzymes. It stopped and stabilized when the matter was removed.

hahaha bob

Insider2

@AUandAG said:
Organic matter splattered onto the surface. The halo is the migration of the active enzymes. It stopped and stabilized when the matter was removed.

hahaha bob

Is organic matter the only thing that would cause this? Is it a Pancake crumb or cookie? hahaha.

PerryHall

@Insider2 said:

@AUandAG said:
Organic matter splattered onto the surface. The halo is the migration of the active enzymes. It stopped and stabilized when the matter was removed.

hahaha bob

Is organic matter the only thing that would cause this? Is it a Pancake crumb or cookie? hahaha.

Dandruff or some other flake of skim.

Hemispherical

Looks like putty or gum?

Insider2

We don't know what the debris is. All we know is that it reacted with the silver coin causing what we call a spot with a ________________________.

Hemispherical

Artifact

messydesk

@Insider2 said:

@AUandAG said:
Organic matter splattered onto the surface. The halo is the migration of the active enzymes. It stopped and stabilized when the matter was removed.

hahaha bob

Is organic matter the only thing that would cause this? Is it a Pancake crumb or cookie? hahaha.

Someone flicked a booger onto it in the grading room.

Insider2

@messydesk said:

@Insider2 said:

@AUandAG said:
Organic matter splattered onto the surface. The halo is the migration of the active enzymes. It stopped and stabilized when the matter was removed.

hahaha bob

Is organic matter the only thing that would cause this? Is it a Pancake crumb or cookie? hahaha.

Someone flicked a booger onto it in the grading room.

LOL, not in my grading room!

Insider2

The target like discoloration is called a "reaction ring."

Hemispherical

Or chancre sore

Thanks @Insider2 for doing these quizzes. Eye opening!

Insider2

More" reaction rims" around particles.

Hemispherical

Yup chancre sores, now I have a correlation. If I see the sores = reaction rims. 🤒

Insider2

@Hemispherical said:
Yup chancre sores, now I have a correlation. If I see the sores = reaction rims. 🤒

I expect them to be shades of red.

thefinn

Looks like spittle droplets. Someone was talking over their coins.