Zits

duki

What would explain these bumps at the base of his nose?



Coin not in hand, sellers pic.

Thanks

RobP

Small spots which may be singular or clusters are usually due to rusted dies. Being ferrous, they rapidly rust if left exposed to the air and so traditionally were stored in tubs of animal fat. They are still stored in a greased condition today. If a die is not stored under ideal conditions, the rust will form on the surface of the die, gradually forming deeper into the fabric of the die so that when the die is retrieved for further use, the die faces are polished, but where the rust has formed, the surface is loose/dusty and so comes away creating a depression. This forms a raised lump on the surface of the struck coin.

To demonstrate this, two pictures below show coins with varying degrees of rust. The first is a British halfcrown used at Bristol during the recoinage of 1696 when hammered silver was demonetised and replaced with a new milled coinage. The dies were all prepared at the Tower mint in London and then shipped out to any of the five temporary provincial mints as required. These mints were open for up to nearly 2 years, so any poor storage would have a visible effect on the dies.


The second coin is a Henry VII angel dating to about 1500. The inverted anchor privy mark seen at the top of the coin was only used at the very beginning of the anchor period, but this coin was struck from the old die at a later date because it is paired with an upright anchor. You can now see the whole of the surface is covered in rust spots which are not seen on the early coins of this mark struck from this die (cf. The Schneider Collection sylloge).


The answer therefore is poor storage.

duki

Wow, thanks for such an informative and well illustrated response.

John