GRADING 101 hairline identification

[grade it-migration]

Donna

 

Abrasion marks are the same as die polish marks if you read carefully it says "abrasion or die polishing marks"

 

Polishing of dies is done to eliminate clashed die mark caused by two die coming together with no planchet ( the unstruck round) . The pressure is enormous and without this planchet the dies strike each other and do damage... This damage is corrected, if possible, by grinding the defect area . Quick grinding of the die causes the appearance of tiny little raised scratches on the surface of the coin.

 

Think of the die as a mold. One grinds the inside of the mold which makes a negative or void then what you pour in the mold becomes a positive.

 

That is the same as die polish marks. a raised set of grind marks.

 

When you scratch the out side of the finished product made from the mold you cause hairlines. All defects occur after the product leaves the mold

 

This is a great subject and a key area to know, when buying coins. Hairlines will never bring the true value of a coin no matter what the holder or dealer says. If do not think so try selling one with hairlines to a dealer...

 

In the original post I have outlined an experiment to sight hairlines in pocket change. Photos are impossible to take for me

[bsshog40]

I have a perfect example of cleaning hairlines. This is a Peace Dollar I bought some years ago that someone very harshly cleaned. From what I know, and someone may correct me if I'm wrong, but Die Polish Lines are usually more uniformed. Usually all going the same way. Cleaning hairlines are more erratic as shown in the pics below.

 

 

 

[comicdonna]

This information is great, everyone.

[grade it-migration]

He are some photos at 10x of die polish, which I think may look like the photo above.

 

As I said hairlines are difficult to photo. die polish is not. I rotated the camera angle and the lighting using the same coin.(cut on neck) You can see lines appear and disappear. The last two photos are the best to explain this..

 

The two types by untrained eye can be mistaken one from another and photos can be misleading...

 

10X and full light is the key

 

Here is a good example of appearing and disappearing lines from tilt of the coin.This photo below we see lines on the neck. The last photo, they are less visible

[bsshog40]

Sorry grade it, but those are definitely not die polish lines on my peace dollar. This thing was cleaned.

[grade it-migration]

Nice photo!! Makes for a great comparison. Those lines must be deep

 

Photos are difficult to read. One needs a three dimensional view to be conclusive.

 

As I said they look like die polish as mine might look like hairlines.

 

Well new collectors are getting an education , which is the point to this forum..

 

Thanks for your correction and post

[James_OldeTowne]

I have a perfect example of cleaning hairlines. This is a Peace Dollar I bought some years ago that someone very harshly cleaned. From what I know, and someone may correct me if I'm wrong, but Die Polish Lines are usually more uniformed. Usually all going the same way. Cleaning hairlines are more erratic as shown in the pics below.

That Peace dollar does show cleaning in a terrific manner. However, I wish I knew who it was that started the fallacy that hairlines from cleaning somehow have different uniformity than die polish.

 

It's easy to explain why die polish, and coin cleaning produce lines of similar uniformity. Lines from die polish are themselves the result of cleaning! However, they are caused by cleaning of the dies, which is why they are raised on the coin the strike. But the fact that a cleaning procedure creates them explains why they are no different in directional tendencies than cleaning.

 

Hairlines from cleaning, and hairlines from die polish are certainly much different. But "uniformity of direction" unfortunately provides no help at all in telling them apart.

[comicdonna]

I am guessing that the first coins struck are the best quality coins. Are these usually put into circulation? In general, what is the mints policy reguarding circulated and uncirculated coins? Does the first batch get put into circulation then, more coins are struck and stored until needed for circulation? (If not needed they remain uncirculated?)

[Catbert]

A pic showing die polishing, in the fields:

 

[bsshog40]

Thanks for the clarification James!!

[bsshog40]

So as the Peace Dollar I showed above is cleaned, the Rev is of course harshly cleaned also which to me indicates some sort of polishing. What about Die Polish Lines, mostly one side only, mostly both sides, or is there nothing consistent to that?

[James_OldeTowne]

So as the Peace Dollar I showed above is cleaned, the Rev is of course harshly cleaned also which to me indicates some sort of polishing. What about Die Polish Lines, mostly one side only, mostly both sides, or is there nothing consistent to that?

Nope, not at all. Just take a look at an 1953 proof Franklin.

 

So here are two thoughts:

 

1. ALWAYS consistent: die polish is raised, hairlines are depressed into the surface

 

2. ALMOST ALWAYS consistent: die polish usually traverses the fields and skips the devices. Hairlines almost never do this. However, this is only about 90% true. Take a look again at a 1953 proof Franklin - it has heavy die polish on the devices, and some in the fields as well, which is deceptively like hairlines. It is very easy to confuse a 1953 proof Frankie with a cleaned coin, because those dies were scrubbed and polished far beyond the norm.