Chatter and Luster breaks

[BodyBag]

What's the definition of "Chatter" with respect to marks on coins, and how is chatter different than "bag marks"?

Also, what causes luster breaks?

[keithdagen]

Luster breaks are usually caused by the coin getting minor hits that are very, very shallow, to the point that it doesn't look like a hit.

 

Chatter is usually a group of hits that look like the coin has rubbed up against another coin, and will have a series of minor scrapes near each other. Bag marks would be noticeable hits that you can see plainly and have a depth to them.

[truthteller]

Chatter usually refers to marks on a coin that have a pattern, akin to bagmarks, but usually scrape off a bit of surface metal rather that make an indentation on the coin. Bagmarks usually refer to 'reeding'' or edgemarks from another coin on the surface, resembling a series of dashes or dots. Luster breaks refers to the loss of luster or brilliance on a coin, usually from contact marks. Also, luster break can refer to actual wear on high points of a coin, whereby the luster is not complete at the point of wear, usually a change in silver or gold color, depending on the coin, makes this noticeable.

 

TRUTH

[ursabear-migration]

Often chatter is represented by very thin wear lines on the top surfaces of the devices. Sometimes chatter can be hard to see if you look directly at the coin. Holding the coin at an angle away from the eye towards good light can show a great deal more about the impact of chatter on some coins, particularly clad (nickel-surface) and brass coin metals.