Here's a very old type of alteration on a Morgan dollar...
Insider2
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The fields have been heavily polished to resemble a cameo PL.
Note how the polishing smoothed out the hits between the letters:
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California cams, typically obvious but worth revisiting to teach
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
oh my.
bob
Step back with the camera my bro so we can see the whole coin.
He's said before, not able to show whole coin, nor realistic white balance. Too bad.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
I see what you mean Skip. Thanks for the snapshot.
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Here's the thing. We have a state of the art imaging department with one employee. They keep him busy. The ONLY time I ask him to take an image of anything for me is when I need it for print publication. This is a coin forum. I try to be helpful and truly wish I personally had the ability to take glamour shots like True Views.
In your life you'll need to examine coins in all types of light and under less than ideal circumstances. Please consider my awful attempts at providing useful micrographs to be a challenge.
PS 99.9% of my images are taken using florescent light so folks can easily see what I wish them to see.
You're publishing it here! Whole coin photos please (and please remove that gold Instagram type filter).
Excellent example! You can clearly see that the flow lines were smoothed over by the tooling/polishing process.
Collector, occasional seller
How is ICG's employee of the state of the art imaging department kept busy?
If this is a California I'd like it if available. I've never seen one in-hand
Thanks for the educational post!!
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I have never seen this before and since it took me a long time to understand precisely what everyone was seeing and saying regarding double dies vs machine/shelf doubling are you illustrating the areas immediately surrounding the letters that appear cloudy/rough? And thank you in advance for the educational post.
Good question. Look at the image. In your own words, describe what you see if I was on the telephone and could not see the coin. Tell me about the color and the different textures on the coin and where you see them.
Well, when I look at the B and U, the immediate fields surrounding the B and U, meaning the exact tracing of each letter, to include inside the B, look nothing like the majority of the fields on the majority of the coin. Did I get that right or am I still seeing things? I appreciate open feedback and thank you in advance.
@LJenkins11 said: "Well, when I look at the B and U, the immediate fields surrounding the B and U, meaning the exact tracing of each letter, to include inside the B, look nothing like the majority of the fields on the majority of the coin."
Good, stay with it, remember, I cannot see the coin. What do they look like? Color? Black, white, silver, gray, (definitely red in your image (LOL). What about the texture? Inside the letters, near the letters, near the denticals, in the field between the letters? Do you know what radial metal flow is?
This is great, thank you for your patience and teachings. ... I had to look up radial metal flow as I did not know what it is. I can see it basically outside the borders everywhere I drew the red lines, as in someone with a tool of some sorts couldn't get close enough to finish the job. To answer your question, the areas immediately near to the letters and denticals look much rougher and bright than the surrounding fields, very bright as shown in the photo.
They are called "radial" because they generally go out from the center of the coin. They are caused by planchet metal filling erosion lines in the die, The reflection of light from these micro (at first) lines gives the coin it's mint luster. The bright areas with the tiny little parallel lines are the remnants of the radials that were not polished away because they were "protected" by the raised relief of the coin's design. The bright outline you marked in red gives the coin a "halo" appearance around the letters. A "halo" is a clue that something is going on with the surface. In most cases, it is not something good.
The fields have been highly polished. They reflect light (luster). This type of "luster" is mirror-like and does not resemble the mint luster from an original coin but it does look like the luster from a PL coin and that's why this alteration is done in the first place.
Confused folks here are going to tell you that a proof coin or a PL coin does not have luster (the reflection of light from a surface). They do, it is just not the usual "frosty" luster usually found on MS coins. Arguing with them will only make you look like a fool and it will not change their minds.
Great post @Insider2 ...A fine point often overlooked. This will help many people. Your posts are very informative. Cheers, RickO
A really well done "California Proof" silver dollar is a neat-looking alteration, and usually attracts attention at a coin club meeting. They are not seen as often as they used to, in the 1970's and 1980's. Wonder where they all went?