Let's chat about the Dreaded Hairlines, Die Scratches and Polish Line Scratches.

Not bad at all, but I'd like to wait and see if any others care to comment before I continue. There is much to discuss regarding this, and more pictures.

 

Slider I think your coin is a bit different. Your pictures have a reflection that is in effect doubling just about everything on the coin. This doubling effect (reflection) is much more severe in some places than others. So where we should only see 1 mark, spot, ding, (choose your word), we are instead seeing 2 of them. For example, look at the bridge of the nose, the date, the bottom legend, etc.

Also, it is pretty common with Proofs from this era to find what look like tiny, white spots scattered all over the coin. They are not spots per se, (sometimes they are), but are instead tiny flecks of dust that show up as white in pictures. Most of the time these are tiny flecks of cardboard dust that come from albums & 2x2s. And those flecks of cardboard dust can also create tiny little scratches from an album slide causing them to move across the coin, or from the coin moving around inside a 2x2.

Your coin also has several contact marks on it, some rather severe for a Proof coin; in particular the reverse, but there are some small ones on the obverse as well. This clearly indicates that the coin at some point in its life has undergone some rough handling, for Proof coins, as a general rule, never come into contact with other coins. And that rough handling is undoubtedly also the cause of at least some of the chatter we see on the coin.

All of this combined, coupled with all of the spots on the devices - which are typically not caused by anything having to do with the die - indicate that a lot of what you see on your coin did indeed have nothing to do with the die.

That said, Proofs from this era are well known for having been struck with worn out dies. At that point in time the mint simply didn't care how the Proofs turned out. An obvious example of this is the scarcity of cameo examples. When the frost on the die wore out, they simply went right on striking coins, of to the point that other die wear and deterioration became evident.

But there are almost always clues as to what caused what we see on the coins. We just have to be aware of the existence of these clues so we know what we see, when we see it.

 

Yes that is true. But, it is true of business strikes, not Proofs. And in this case it is Proofs that we are talking about.

 

I actually like the look of heavily striated dies in a lot of cases. I guess I'm a weirdo?

examples:


http://indiancent.com/7849-1939-s-ms-67rd-ngc.html




http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=862726