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What is this schmutz???
3keepSECRETif2rDEAD
Posts: 4,285 ✭✭✭✭✭
I have noticed recently that these little marks on Morgan's won't dip off or degrease off...I have never tried using any method involving friction for obvious reasons...they almost look like hits at first glance but they are not. It looks like a waxy rub of some sort. So what is it???
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Planchet impurity. There's no removing it short of chiseling it out. Something was in the alloy that didn't belong at the time the strip was rolled out, and it just happened to be at the surface. If they're just below the surface, they can manifest as laminations, and if they're entirely in the interior of the planchet, you'll never know they're there.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Thanks @messydesk
...do graders just count them as hits? They are fugly so I would assume they don't look past them.
Hard to see in those pictures, however, I would agree with messydesk....not sure how the graders would handle these.... with a fast review they may think they are hits, in depth review should indicate planchet flaws...Cheers, RickO
Depends how big they are. If big enough they might not even slab it unless sent in under error service. If very small it can be looked over depending on location. Yours is right on the edge of being just large enough and in a very conspicuous place that they will probably slab it under regular service but might knock it down a point or prevent a +
They will count against the grade if they're conspicuous enough in both size and location. In that respect they're treated like hits, but they also affect overall eye-appeal. I don't know at what grade levels they become a deal-breaker, though.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
So, kiddies, what we have learned is that an imperfect planchet, inserted with gloves, fully struck from a new die, and caught fresh from the die on a bed of feathers......might not get a +
Swell.
Tar marks were somewhat common back in the Carson City days as gold dust was being refined the machines that would crush it to powder used a thick gooey oil that would spew forth and land on silver coins. The bigger the better.
Even with the spot it looks like a really nice coin, I don't find it to be very distracting. What does the obverse look like?
Collector, occasional seller
Would a dab of silver paint cover it up?