Educate me please?...are these "wizz" marks?

FloridaBill

Many Thanks!

FloridaBill

mozeppa

nope...die polishing striations.

MrSpud

Those look like hairlines to me.

commoncents05

My first thought was die polish lines, but I'm not sure. I think the photos are a little too zoomed for me to decide.

-Paul

BECOKA

<< <i>nope...die polishing striations. >>



Either that or that mixed in with harsh cleaning.

Wizzing would be a rotational patter and the coin would look almost proof like.

TomB

The images are soooooo zoomed in that I am having a hard time telling what is going on with this San Diego commem, but those look like hairlines to me.

commoncents05

BTW, it's spelled "whiz" like the gourmet cheese.

-Paul

FloridaBill

Thanks everyone!

FloridaBill

Type2

Looks like a nice san Diego.

beep

Nice pic. Looks almost 3D.

PerryHall

Those are hairlines from a cleaning.

greghansen

In determining whether marks are 'die polish' or 'cleaned/whizz' marks, you take the following into account:

1. Are the markings on the raised elements of the coin or in the fields. Die polish marks are MUCH more likely to be in the fields since that is the highest portion of the die being polished. The first picture shows nasty lines on raised elements of the coin and are almost certainly cleaning lines of some type. The second coins shows markings down on the field and would require further investigation.

2. Are the lines raised up off the coin or down into the coin. Obviously die polish lines will present as raised lines on the coin since they will be the opposite of what they were on the die. Many times determining whether the lines are raised off the fields or not requires a strong loupe and holding the coin a sharp angle to the light source so you can see if you can pick up reflection from the 'front edge' of the raised die polish line. A scratch down into the coin will not have a strong reflection line on the leading edge of the line where a raised die polish line will.

There are many more generalities. Die polish lines are not always parallel to one another, cleaning lines are more likely to be parallel...at least in the localized area where the cleaning occurred. As someone else mentioned, cleaning/polish lines done with a buffing device may appear as an arc on the coin.

Finally, be educated on the series your looking at. Some series (proof Frankys are an example) and certain dates in the series are famous for very obvious die polish lines. The more you know about what the original coin was supposed to look like, the better you can determine whether what your looking at is normal, or the product of post production tampering.

astrorat

It appears as if you have both die polish lines AND hairlines from cleaning. First, the die polish lines appear to be present in the field of the coin. These are the fine lines that "run into" the device elements as if they are going "underneath" and through to the other side. The hairlines from cleaning appear on top of the device elements (raised portions) as die polish lines are extraordinarily rare as those lines would be found in the incuse portion of the die (and hence raised portion of the coin).

Lane