When is a weak strike on a Morgan considered Die adjustment?

Trooper

Here's a 1878 8TF NGC ms63* coin that I own. Everytime I look at it it drives me nuts because of the flat spot which is even with the fields in front of her eye. The feathers below the chest and above the arrows on the reverse is weak also.
I own over 100 Morgans in MS condition and none of them show this.
Is this just considered a weak strike?
If noticed when minted would they(mint workers) readjusted the dies or just keep on putting them out?

Thanks
Tom

Rampage

My guess is weak strike. Nice coin, by the way.

nwcs

From the examples I've seen, a die adjustment strike will have a lot (A LOT) less of the design struck up.

Dog97

I don't see what you're talking about. Looks normal to me.
Anyway this is a die adjustment strike:

davewang202

That's just an overpolished die, and parts of the face is polished away. The VAM 17 picture shown in Oxman's 8TF book has similar appearance. All VAM 17's probably look like that.

errormaven

<< <i>Here's a 1878 8TF NGC ms63* coin that I own. Everytime I look at it it drives me nuts because of the flat spot which is even with the fields in front of her eye. The feathers below the chest and above the arrows on the reverse is weak also.
I own over 100 Morgans in MS condition and none of them show this.
Is this just considered a weak strike?
If noticed when minted would they(mint workers) readjusted the dies or just keep on putting them out?

Thanks
Tom

As another member just commented, this appears to be a case of intentional die abrasion (die polishing). The areas of lowest relief are the first to disappear when the dies are abraded. Exactly the opposite of a weak strike, where the areas of highest relief are the first to disappear.

As to when a weak strike becomes a "die adjustment strike", the answer is (or should be) .... never.

The term "die adjustment strike" reflects a wildly optimistic interpretation of a weakly struck coin. For any particular weak strike, it is impossible to determine either the proximate or the ultimate cause of the weakness. The coin could be an escapee from a test run, or the weakness could be the result of equipment malfunction during a press run. The terms "die trial", "die adjustment strike", and "set-up" piece are used by dealers, grading services, and auction houses to create an exotic and romantic aura around what is more likely than not a simple accident.

So, no matter how little of design is present, a weak strike is simply that -- a weak strike.

Trooper

Thanks all.

Dog
The part of the coin which I'm referring to is the cavity directly in front of the eye. It's a flat spot which shows a mirrored finish. That flat spot almost connects to the rest of the field if it weren't for the small bridge of the nose that present. That's something that i never have seen before on any of my morgans. If you look at the slab photo it shows there also.
Is that your die ajusted Morgan? Nice coin wanna trade?

After reading the opinions I'll go with the polished die.

Thanks all
Tom

Dog97

Trooper all my Morgans have a flat spot in front of the eye with just the edge of the noseline separating it from the field.
Also, if any of the die was polished away it would result in a raised area, not a cavity, on the coin.
I snagged the image from Byer's site. Byer's site

davewang202

Dog, the die was basined (polished), so the relief of the devices gets to be less, and some of the devices goes away completely and becomes part of the field.

So you have something like this... (early die state)


Polish/basin the die and some of the devices melt away. You end up with a late die state thing that looks like this

Dog97

If you're saying the shiny prooflike area in the cavity is at the same height as the fields because basining lowered the fields until the basining disk touched part of the eye cavity then I see what you're saying.

davewang202

yep