Coolest Thing To Walk In The Store This Week *World & Ancient Edition*

OK Matt, I know what I think happened with that first coin, but tell me what you think happened !

 

Matt - that's a bit more than rusted I would think. Typically a rusted die usually results in small patches of bumps and dimples is some areas. This coin however has a much more uniform and pervasive scaling effect on the obv device and rim, but only on the obv device and rim. And that presents us with paradox.

Picture this scenario, were the cause liquid getting on the die and causing rust it makes sense that the liquid would settle in the low places on the die. That would be the device (the bust), and the legends.

But when we look at the coin the device shows signs of the die corroding in that area, but yet the field (the high point of the central portion of the die) is completely clean and smooth. That would seemingly be logical. But that part only partially makes sense when you consider the following.

When we look at the wide rim the rim itself shows the corrosion of the die but the letters of the legend are completely clean and smooth. This is the exact opposite of what happened to the central part of the coin. The letters would be the low places on the die where you would expect moisture/liquid to settle and corrode, and the rim would be the high point of that portion of the die, but lower than the fields. So any liquid that fell on the coin would settle in the central device and roll off the fields and onto the rim, and then settle into the letters. But not a single letter shows any sign of rust or corrosion being present on the die. Instead the rim, the high point of that section of the die itself shows corrosion.That doesn't make sense at all.

On one portion of the coin we see signs of corrosion being in the low point of the die. In the other portion we see signs of corrosion on a higher portion of the die and none at all in the low portion. And the corrosion we see is completely different than we would typically see on any rusted die. Instead of small bumps and dimples we see flat, broad scaling and a generally rough surface texture right next to smooth, unblemished areas. So how did this happen ?

The only thing that makes sense to me is this. The die was finished and sitting waiting to be used. It got wet and the entire thing rusted, and badly so. When the mint workers came to use the die they saw it's condition and said this will never do. So they took the die and re-polished it, removing almost all signs of corrosion from the fields, the high point of the die. But when polishing that's all you can polish, the high point of the die. This left the corrosion on the low points. They couldn't do much about the device, the bust. But the legends they could improve by carefully re-punching them deeper than they were originally, thus smoothing out and effectively removing the corrosion in the legends.

Am I right in my thinking ? I dunno, but it's the only scenario I can think of that makes sense and explains the paradoxical condition of the coin.

There is one other thing that goes along with my theory, and it is explained by Doug's question regarding the wire edge on the reverse. That wire edge is what is called finning and it only occurs when a coin is struck with excessive pressure. And since the mint workers knew the die was worked and that fields were polished away so they were lower than would be normal, they intentionally adjusted the striking pressure upwards when they used this die to make up for it.

So Matt, a rusted die ? Yeah, but I'd say a heavily corroded die that was re-worked before use. Something that is highly unusual. And I don't think I've ever even seen it before. But it's the only thing that makes sense.