die polish lines - a few questions

secondrepublic

Just bought a coin that has some vivid die polish lines on the obverse fields. Anyone know whether die polish lines tend to indicate a certain die state? I.e., is this coin from a fresh die? Or an old one? Do die polish lines tend to wear down / disappear the longer a die is used?

Udo

Dies usually are polished before they're used for the first time and from time to time during its life to clean up dirt and disposals. So die polish lines don't always indicate a fresh die. Die polish lines tend to wear down the longer the die is used.

Perhaps you can see a few die polish lines around the eagles head in the pic below, it wasn't a fresh die as the die cracks in the legends indicate and they didn't get rid of some stuff in the left rim when they polished it.

secondrepublic

Thanks Udo, that's also what I assumed to be the case. I will try to post some pics later on.

crito

Light cracks around the lettering can be created on a new die during the hardening process. Stress/pressure cracks usually radiate from a low point on the design (high point on struck coin) out towards the rim.