1878 8TF Morgan. VAM? Grade?

OK. Let me ask this, then, would it make a difference in your grade if the lines were from a hand-polished die, i.e., before the coin was struck? Magnify that area in front of the face where the lines are. Do you see the underlay? It appears there was something there. Note, too, how the lines are confined to the fields, i.e., they don't traverse the portrait, the stars, or even the dot between the E and P. If you zoom-in sufficiently, I think you'll see that.

At any rate, to be perfectly honest, I could care less what caused those lines. The luster grazes on the face and neck are imminently more distracting. A TPG, in its infinite wisdom, wants to details-grade it, I'll take it discounted, no sweat.

 

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I did think about polishing lines. You can see some examples on them on the reverse. However, the lines on the obverse do not have the same qualities as die polishing lines. I did study the image with that in mind until I was confident that they did not look like die polish.

@Cascade does this VAM have die polish lines in the obverse field?

 

Die polish and cleaning hairlines affect the luster of the coin in very different ways.

 

Not sure. The pics on VW are an earlier die state. Heck, the only cracks on the VW example are at the eagles right wing tip and none on obverse like this one. However, those are not die polishing lines on the obverse, Guaranteed.

 

How can you ignore they don't traverse any devices?

 

Because I know the difference. Come on eddy, I'm a Morgan guy and I specialize so to speak in polished dies specifically.

 

Why aren't the lines traversing the raised devices? They would, were they from post-mint polishing. On the die, they're not going to. There's where I'm stuck.

 

They might be and we just can't tell from the pic.

 

On the die, polishing lines are not going to stop short and "halo" around devices, either, since those devices are recessed below the surface rather than raised. To a 100% degree of certainty, those lines appeared on the coin post-strike. I'm not going to rehash whether or not they represent a deliberate cleaning or incidental contact - that horse passed away a while ago - but there is no doubt that they are not as-struck.

A good reason for hairlines not to visibly traverse devices is, the device surfaces do not have the microstructure causing "luster." Whatever hit the coin might not have been hard enough to show up on the devices, but the sensitive fields showed it immediately.

 

That's the wild card. But I'm afraid I'm still the holdout juror for it.

 

Real good, Dave. Lol.

 

OK, now we're giving this old girl due process. The devices are going to withstand the abrasions better than the more delicate fields, that's a good point to ponder. Still, do you see the underlay in that area? Something was polished off, there. Whether that was on the die or on the coin is the question, I think, as the lines are confined to that area of the underlay. Do you see the lines anywhere else on the obverse? Somebody tried to hand-polish (that's why the lines are haphazard) that underlay, and succeeded in getting a good piece of it polished down. That's my theory. I just don't know if that took place on the die or on the coin.

 

I hesitate to think too much more deeply than I have, because there is only one set of images - admittedly very good ones - shot from one single lighting angle. A bit of lighting difference and maybe we see a completely different coin.