Intentional Die Damage?
cmerlo1
Posts: 7,910 ✭✭✭✭✭
I bought this at the B&M earlier today. At first glance I thought the reverse was scratched up but gave it a look through my loupe. It was then that I noticed the 'scratches' were raised. Looking at it through my microscope, the lines appear very similar to long die scratches that can be found on some 1878 Morgan dollars, and on the 1892 'Scarface' Indian cent. I'm wondering if the die was scratched on purpose with a tool for reasons unknown. There also appears to be a strike-thru on the reverse as well. Any opinions are welcome. Again, these lines are all RAISED.
You Suck! Awarded 6/2008- 1901-O Micro O Morgan, 8/2008- 1878 VAM-123 Morgan, 9/2022 1888-O VAM-1B3 H8 Morgan | Senior Regional Representative- ANACS Coin Grading. Posted opinions on coins are my own, and are not an official ANACS opinion.
8
Comments
GREAT pictures!
Die polishing I think, as it looks like there is plenty of polishing in the fields. Normally the polishing would not need to extend into the device areas, and these almost look errant, like the first pass from a wire brush that didn't mean to get into the device areas.
That's just a wag though. Interested what others think.
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Die polish, probably from a wire brush. During WW2 the mints tried to extend die life to save die steel by just cleaning up used dies and leaving them in the presses. This is a great example of die polish, but as a class of error it is quite common.
That's a very cool and extreme example, especially for a business strike. When I see coins like this where the dies are all scratched up on the devices, but not the fields, it tends to be on proofs (especially 1950's proofs). I would imagine the entire die received the coarse polishing/brushing, initially, but then the fields were more finely polished to eliminate the coarse scratches (while the devices did not receive the finer polishing).
Another example from 1942-S where both the obverse fields and Jefferson's lower bust have rather coarse polishing lines:
Nice example of die scratches.
Good info to know, great images seal the deal. Peace Roy
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Great pics!
Nice all the way around
Excellent images to show the raised lines... and thanks @CaptHenway for the historical input. Cheers, RickO
Nice pickin', cmerlo1.
i posted a frank half with lines like this all over his nose. deeper but not as many as yours. if i dig out the image, i'll post it here and maybe we can get something started!
edited to add. not a frank. but a jeffie as well !
i sort these things into 3 groups from least to worst: polish, scratch, gouges.
i'd say ours are between scratch and gouges
I have seen plenty of Mercury Dimes with die polish lines that extend all over the devices as well.
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Die polish, but not an error.