What are "die lines" on a coin and what causes them?

Comments

• DickyBetz Posts: 3,825

  August 29, 2005 1:23AM

  Maybe they meant die polishing lines? Otherwise, I have no idea.

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• PerryHall Posts: 46,789 ✭✭✭✭✭

  August 29, 2005 2:20AM

  Maybe they mean die cracks or die erosion lines.

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  "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
  "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

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• grip Posts: 9,962 ✭✭✭✭✭

  August 29, 2005 3:03AM

  What DickyBetz said.
  Al
  

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• Nysoto Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

  August 29, 2005 3:24AM

  In the early US series a die line can be caused as the result of the engravers tool, the graver, slipping out of place, resulting in a stray line on the working die. This happened frequently at the corners of the shield on bust halves. The best example I am aware of is 1807 O.107 "long stem" where the graver slipped out of place while engraving the stem through claw, resulting in a prominent line extending to the rim. Some die lines and die defects cannot be explained.

  Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver

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• OKbustchaser Posts: 5,544 ✭✭✭✭✭

  August 29, 2005 4:09AM

  Another well-known example of a die cutter's slip of the tool is the 1814 O-103 reverse. (Although I have no idea what he was doing at the time.)
  
  
  
  Jim

  Just because I'm old doesn't mean I don't love to look at a pretty bust.

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• PerryHall Posts: 46,789 ✭✭✭✭✭

  August 29, 2005 4:31AM

  He could also be refering to planchet adjustment marks.

  Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
  "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
  "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

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• Elcontador Posts: 7,678 ✭✭✭✭✭

  August 29, 2005 4:42AM

  Robert, I have a high end type Liberty Nickel with die striation lines. They llook like hairlines, except they radiate out from the coin's edge and are parallel to one another. They don't seem to affect a coin's grade.
  
  Die polishing marks are a different animal. They look like very fine hairlines, and are close to one another. They sit on the coin's surface, and also don't seem to affect a coin's grade.

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• mozin Posts: 8,755 ✭✭✭

  August 29, 2005 10:14AM

  Here is what die polish lines look like on a "prooflike" MS gold piece.
  
  
  

  I collect Capped Bust series by variety in PCGS AU/MS grades.

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