Die polish lines

XpipedreamR

I like 'em. But what exactly do they polish the dies with?

nwcs

I remember reading that they used bench grinders (or the equivalent)

nwcs

Also remember reading that emery boards were used.

Cam40

from the looks of alot of die lines on coins i,d swear they used
sandpaper to polish the dies. or something pretty rough anyway

jonesy

<< <i>I like 'em. But what exactly do they polish the dies with?



>>


Die polish.

Cameonut

Die polish lines on some coins can certainly give them some character.

On proofs in the '50's die polishing was a common practice. (Remember that the working dies have the devices incuse to the surface.) When a proof die was repolished, it was done with a wire brush and a compound containing diamond dust to get down into the devices. The Mint experimented with different brushes over time thus explaining the wide variation in what the die polishing looks like. Polishing the mirrors was far easier as they were essentially flat.

Many of the nicest cameos from this time period were off of repolished dies. Original dies were given their frost with a sandblasting technique which yields a smoot and even frost. So it is easy to pick out an original die as there will be even cameo frost with no die polishing lines.