A question about a weak strike on a coin.

MrBreeze

Is there a good way that you can tell a weak strike from wear? Can you see it with the naked eye, or does it require a certain level of magnification?

Artist

In a word, luster.

On a week strike, even the flat areas should have srufaces as dynamic as the fields.

Wear is when the high points have a flat, uniform rub to them - usually the color is a shade or two more dull than the rest of the coin.

curly

Brother....I started to put something down, but this is a hard subject to take on. My best advice is to learn about the minting process. Learn about planchets and metal flow. Where the high points are on the different coins. Learn about luster.....what it is and how it occurs.

What coins are notorious for weak strikes...S minted Walkers....1921 Peace Dollar....O minted Morgans...etc.

There are books out there that will help you. If you are an ANA member you might call them and borrow some of their books on the subject.

Gook Luck

numonebuyer

In the Morgan Silver Dollar series, New Orleans made some dollars with very weak strikes. Here are a couple examples from my collection.







However, here are some examples of Morgans that you can see wear all over the place

cladking

<< <i>In a word, luster.

On a week strike, even the flat areas should have srufaces as dynamic as the fields.

Wear is when the high points have a flat, uniform rub to them - usually the color is a shade or two more dull than the rest of the coin. >>



Excellent answer.

Remember that wear affects the high points first and weak strikes tend to affect specific
areas where the relief is higher than the surrounding. Many times weakness will be in only
one area or toward one side of the coin. Wear will affect the entire coin equally and start
at the highest points.

Tip the coin with a bright light opposite and you can see the high points. Tip it back and
forth until you've identified all the highest points.

Cladiator

You've touched on one the more complex and difficult aspects of coin grading. Finding weak strike issues with mint state coins can be relatively easy. It gets really tough when you have a coin with a weak strike and a small amount of wear. The little bit of wear can camoflauge the weak strike causing folks to think that the coin has much more wear than it actually does. Often times a coin will be graded much lower than it deserves because of this. One of the best ways to help in identifying weak strike is to become very familiar with the coin series you are interested in. Read the books about the coin and they will typically talk of the dates and mints that often had strike problems. Then you'll be armed with a basic knowledge of which ones to automatically suspect of a weak strike and be more equipped to accurately grade these coins. The next thing is to personally examine as many coins as you can. Nothing beats coin-in-hand experience.

BlindedByEgo

A lot of good points made by all. I would add that you need to look at a lot of coins in comparison, and avail yourself of whatever reference material exists for the specific series.

Barndog

So, what are we looking at here? Weak strike on the left side, uneven wear, or something else?

Cladiator

I'll refrain from talking about Barndog's coin because I wouldn't want to spoil the fun so quickly. Here's another coin to chew on for a bit. Weak Strike? Wear? Both? Other issues?

mozin

<< <i>I'll refrain from talking about Barndog's coin because I wouldn't want to spoil the fun so quickly. Here's another coin to chew on for a bit. Weak Strike? Wear? Both? Other issues?

>>

Nice Bald eagle.

Barndog

Thanks for showing the most beautiful bust dime I have ever seen...again! It only serves to remind me that I was the underbidder!

bhartman35

Barndog:

That certainly looks like wear to me. I don't see any original luster in the area to suggest otherwise.

DNADave

<< <i>Barndog:

That certainly looks like wear to me. I don't see any original luster in the area to suggest otherwise. >>




I'll go the other way. I'm 99.5% sure its weak strike....unless there is a counterstamp on the other side or the coin is bent..

Barndog

Maybe this will help? Here's the obverse of that coin (note the strike doubling):

bhartman35

The obverse looks fairly even, which I think lends credence to the idea that the reverse has wear. I wouldn't expect to see such unevenness as is on the reverse if it was a strike issue. (On the beautiful example demonstrated by Cladiator, the weakness is in one area, rather than over a large swath of the coin.)

Additionally, on the shield near the left wing, you can see obvious signs of wear:



The right wing and right side of the shield are comparatively strong. If these surfaces are the same depth, why the difference in detail, if it's the strike?

MrBreeze

Thank you, everyone. Those pics help. I could not even begin to venture a guess on any of those coins, but I definitely am learning from the discussion. Thank you.

Barndog

I'll add more later about the half dime I posted. I'll give others a chance and I have my 11-year old's birthday party going on to attend to...

Barndog

The reverse of the half dime I posted is a bit controversial. I've heard some claim that reverse LL (used twice: 1837 LM-2 and the coin I showed, -- 1837 LM-3) shows left side weakness due to die wear. However, Logan and McCloskey point out that all specimens show weakness through the left side of the shield and inner part of the left wing. So I don't think it could be die wear when all specimens (i.e. including early-struck specimens) show left side weakness. I've heard others claim that the reverse die may have been filled (e.g. maybe there was grease on the die). My tendency is to believe the culprit was not die wear and rather was something along the lines of a filled die. Of course, it is possible that modifications to the die and not grease or another substance caused the effect we see with the struck coins. Since the 1837 LM-2 and LM-3 are the rarest of the 1837 bust half dimes (R-5 and R-6 respectively), it is conceivable that so few were struck that the mint employees did not notice (or care about?) the imperfections. An interesting side note is that the 1837 LM-3 is the only die marriage of the 91 known die marriages in the capped bust half dime series for which there are no known mint state specimens.

Conder101

Since it only comes from two varieties, both of which are rare, die wear is probably not the answer. Especially since it lacks detail even in early die states. A much more likely possibility is an improperly hardened die. If the die wasn't properly hardened the die face would begin sinking as soon as it was put into use. The sinking die would result in a localized weak area.