Why do most Reverses look better than the Obverses?
braddick
Posts: 23,970 ✭✭✭✭✭
Is it the same principle that applies to a dropped piece of bread? The butter side up always lands facing down?
I've seen so many Morgans that had steller "MS68+" (ok, a slight exaggeration) only to have a scuffy cheek?! Or, killer toning with a white obverse?
Franklins run the same way.
Flawless bell but a marked up portrait! Same with Kennedies and especially Ikes! Come on, you Ike collectors know what I'm talking about.
Now, I know it's the obverse that carries most of the grade, so why is it the obverse that is usually visually weaker than the reverse?!
I've seen so many Morgans that had steller "MS68+" (ok, a slight exaggeration) only to have a scuffy cheek?! Or, killer toning with a white obverse?
Franklins run the same way.
Flawless bell but a marked up portrait! Same with Kennedies and especially Ikes! Come on, you Ike collectors know what I'm talking about.
Now, I know it's the obverse that carries most of the grade, so why is it the obverse that is usually visually weaker than the reverse?!
peacockcoins
0
Comments
Camelot
Don't know - one of the great unsolved mysteries of the universe.
However, the great mystery doesn't apply to silver 3 cent pieces or to 2 cent pieces - the universe gets confused with those coins and isn't sure about which side is the obverse and which is reverse.
designset
Treasury Seals Type Set
Can it be all due to storage?
When people used cardboard holders with slides, why do they always slide the top slide? Slide marks are almost always on the obverse.
Whitman folders protect the reverses but the obverses are out there ready to rub against the opposing page.
Or do tails really come up more than %50 of the time
I remember buying a nice proof 1960 quarter when I was twelve. I spent all the money I had ($7.00) for it during the height of the silver boom. I took it home and showed my care for it by lovingly polishing the surface of it with a nice cotton rag every time I touched it. After a few cleanings I noticed that the surfaces were hairlined and my cleanings couldn't bring bace the pristine surfaces...WHOOPS!!
Tyler
When a coin is struck, the center of gravity of the coin changes. It's not necessarily in the center of the planchet anymore. That affects how it interacts with other coins. Reverses also tend to have more details and hide marks better. They protect the fields. Most obverses have large expanses of fields to get nicks. There is also the human factor, people usually put the coins into albums with the obverse up, protecting the reverse and exposing the obverse (for example).
(1) coins w/ this problem have smaller areas of higher relief on obv., larger areas of lower relief on rev. therefore, deeper marks are more likely on obv, while scuffs will appear on the rev.
(2) when coins were put in albums, obverses would be exposed, w/ the reverse protected. this seems especially the case w/ bust material, where quite often the rev. is a different color than the obv, having been exposed to a different environment.
of course, i'm probably wrong on both counts...
K S
In addition to the technical responses, which I agree with, maybe (and I don't know if this is a fact) since they are struck obverse up, removed obverse up, the chances increase they land in the bin obverse up, only to be pounded on by the following coins.
Well, it sounds good.
For the Morgan collectors - The Morgan and Peace encyclopedia by Van Allen and Mallis
What would your slabbed coins be worth if the grading services went out of business? What would your coins be worth if the Internet was taken offline for good?