Wear vs. weak strike - is there an easy way to tell the difference?

dan1ecu

Does anyone know?

Dan

nwcs

Yes, wear will have a flat shelf-like appearance on the surface of a coin. Weak strike will have roughness, but have a little bit of brightness and be more rounded over the surface of the coin.

Wondo

Strike if selling - wear if buying!!


ONLY KIDDING - THAT WAS A JOKE!!!

construct

What about luster? Do weak strikes exhibit the same kind of luster breaks that wear does?

tjkillian

As I understand it, a weakly struck coin can have lots of luster where a coin with lots of wear will have much less luster. Also check for surface preservation, very few or no marks: weak strike, lots of marks from circulation: wear.

Tom

construct

An MS-60 with weak strike will have lots of marks. A well-struck AU-58 won't.

I would expect to see some wear in the fields compared to a weak strike--at least on big coins with open fields (Peace Dollars, for example, or seated dollars and halves).

Wondo

construct,

It took me a while to digest your comment - nice insight.

Bear

You want a week strike, look at the typical Sesquicentennial Half Dollar. This coin

looks as if it was struck by the mint in AU condition. It is a very shallow strike, normally poor luster,

if any and unless you find a rare spectacular specimin, it is an ugly coin in almost any grade.

dan1ecu

You're right, Bear. Here's one

MS64 Sesqui

It does look circulated!

Edited to add: The description says that it's got an above average strike!

Bear

Dan, actually, that looks like a pretty good strike. Nice specimin for the type of coin.

I am momentarily waiting for a susquicentennial from Pinnacle Rarities in MS-65. Its supposed to be

a jaw dropper. To see a picture, look on Pinnacles Website under Commems. Bear

paigowjohnny

<< <i>Do weak strikes exhibit the same kind of luster breaks that wear does >>



I guess I never have quite figured out what exactly a "luster break" is....

mnmcoin

I think the best way is to look for luster breaks.

morris <><

Elcontador

A good example of a coin with a weak strike is an Unc. Capped Bust Half. Look at almost
any of them on the website of your choice. The TY in Liberty may be weak, and usually,
the curls below the TY are weak. Sometimes the curls in the center of the obverse lack
detail. The bust line and / or clasp also may be incomplete. OTOH, if it was AU coin, the
flatness mentioned by an earlier poster will be present, often on the hair above LIBERTY
& more often than not, this is accompanied by a luster break (which may not show up on
an image).

However, there are no luster breaks re the above. Now re an AU coin, take any Seated
coinage & look for wear on Miss Liberty's knee and / or her hair. Note that there will
typically be a luster break as well, which is a tip off.

SportsModerator2

I'm dumping messages to try and get this thread back on track. Hijacking it isn't very nice.
To put the record straight, if it is a 2nd ID congratulations on:
1. Changing your IP so well that it matches no one. (not easy to do)
2. bugging all our conspiracy theorists.

My post should (will) remain the only off topic one on here. If you have an argument, take it to someone else's forum.



we now return you to the regularly scheduled thread.

cladking

Wear generally affects a coin from the high points down. There are different causes
of wear so if a coin has an unusual life it can have unusual wear patterns. Normal
wear starts on the highest points which can be viewed by looking at the coin from the
edge. Tilt the coin back into the light and see if these high points have the same texture
and color as the rest of he coin. If not then the luster is broken. As the coin continues
to clink against counter tops and other coins the highest points are worn further and no
longer serve to help protect the lower points from damage and more wear and less detail
are evident. Eventually the coin will actually become worn smoth and will not be iden-
tifiable.

There are various causes of poor strikes. Usually it is caused by poor spacing of the dies.
They simply do not come close enough together to create a full strike. This is sometimes
referred to as low strike pressure. The tops of the letters will not be fully formed and high
points will not be full. Luster can be affected, especially if metal flow isn't sufficient to ob-
literate all the planchet flaws.

Dies sometimes are a little tilted when they come down. This will affect one side of the strike
more than the other. The left side will appear well struck and the right side will not. The same
effect will be noted on both sides of the coin.

Dies can also be highly worn which will cause "orange peel" luster and sometimes much loss
of detail.

Dies can be poorly hubbed. Until recently they had to be impressed two or three times to get
the full detail on the coin. Sometimes they were not hubbed sufficiently so lacked detail even
on perfect strikes. This would not affect luster.

They can be made from poorly made master dies, but his will normally affect every coin except
varieties.

Dies can also be straight but off center.

There are sometimes multiple problem with strike. Generally a collector can determine which
factors affect a given coin with experience with that series. There are some subtleties which
will require more experience of course, especially as it pertains to surface characteristics.

mrcommem

The sesqui half has got to be the poorest struck and lackluster looking coin of all the commems. My coin has a little haze on it that you can't see in the photo. It has been the best one I have seen in an MS64 holder in the last 5 years. This coin was originally in an NGC 63 holder that crossed to PCGS MS 64. I sure would like to have a nice one but how do you justify the price tag for nice MS65 coin? Most of the 65 don't look as good as the 64 I have.