Burnished dies

EagleEye

This is an article in the latest Longacre's Ledger (Fly-In Club publication) discussing die burnishing. I earlier posted the 1890 S21 asking for your thoughts. I have since made the determination in this article and in the new listing for the 1889 S43 and 1890 S21.

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RogerB

What is "burnished" supposed to mean in this context? Normally it means "polished" using a hard polished steel tool to smooth an area.

derryb

good info.

not to be confused with burnished planchets used for collector gold and silver eagles since 2006.

dcarr

I don't believe any of what I see here to be any sort of intentional bench work on the dies.
All the effects are consistent with erosion from repeated metal movement across the die (striking).
This metal movement is generally in a radial direction.
The disturbances seen in the dies are always positioned in a radial direction from a nearby device.
The fields of a die are where the highest stresses occur and that is where the most erosion occurs.
The erosion also tends to be more pronounced closer to the rim.

JWP

This was a real good read for me, thanks for the education. Much appreciated.

wev

I didn't know Burnished, but am sorry to hear of his passing. So many losses to the community lately.

bolivarshagnasty

Surely you've got something better to do.

moursund

@wev said:
I didn't know Burnished, but am sorry to hear of his passing. So many losses to the community lately.

Nice.