1946S Washington Quarter

I have my ideas, but I want to get the forum's opinion on what is up with the obverse of this quarter. At first glance, it looked like it was harshly cleaned, but after further observation with a loupe, it looks like it was a harshly polished die. Thoughts.

 

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looks like someone took some steel wool to it. but i dont know, im not that expirienced.

 

Looks like it was scrubbed hard.

 

To be honest with you all, I haven't looked at this coin in a while. I photographed it a while ago and forgot about it. I just got around to cropping it and uploading it tonight. I will have to look at it again to see if the lines are raised on the field, but I was thinking that those were polish lines because they don't go through the relief part of the coin. If the coin was harshly cleaned then there would be lines through the relief of the coin in addition to the field. Right?

 

You really need to look at this coin closely. While prominent die polish lines would not be unheard of in this series, this looks more like cleaning.

It's really kind of easy. If they're raised, it's die polish. If they're incuse, it's cleaning.

My money is on cleaning, but I can't imagine why someone would clean a coin that probably didn't have much "tarnish" to begin with.

 

Use a magnifier and examine the areas where the field and the portrait meet. If the lines on the field go all the way to the edge of the raised portrait and end with out appearing on the portrait then it's probably scratches on the die.

From the picture alone I'd say it is aggressive die polishing.

 

It looks to me like die polish, using the same reasoning as the o.p. What's the round dot in the right obv field, above the hair ribbon?

 

I don't think those are striations lines they look MORE like brillo lines to me looks like it was tampered with cleaned and then maybe dipped to try and cover up the damage I indicated in red you could see some black oxidation marks a clear indication that this coin was possibly dipped You also could see the hairlines are weak
Jazzcoins Joe

 

One thing I see in favor of the coin NOT being cleaned is that I don't see the scratches going across the devices.
Washington's profile looks untouched by the lines.
The lines only seem to appear in the fields.

To me that says "die polish".

 

Interesting. Everything says cleaned to me, but what is that dot just above the bow on his braid?

 

I would think that's from dipping looks like black oxidation circle to me ,but not sure

Jazzcoins joe

 

WOW, seems like there are many different opinions here. I can't tell you if it has been dipped in the past. I bought it for $2. It was worth that price in melt alone.

Kanga hit it right on the head... no pun intended when he noticed that the "abrasions" do not go through the bust of GW. And they are only moving in one direction, not in multiple directions. Still doesn't mean that it wasn't harshly cleaned.

The little dot that some have noticed appears to be an oxidation spot, or at least that is what I though.

In the end, I still haven't brought the coin out to look at it, but hopefully tonight I can get to it and give a better conclusion as to whether or not the lines are raised or embedded.

 

I magnified it maybe it could help us a little better I think the strations are raised lines but the coin was dipped still considered cleaned Heres'a an up side down view of the coin


Jazz

 

Yep, Jazzy, those are raised lines. I had a chance to finally look tonight. And, yeah, it looks too clean to have not been dipped at one time or another. Still, a nice album filler.... better than the beat up old worn coin that was in the hole previously. Thanks everyone for their thoughts.

 

Gosh Joe I was just gonna tell you to quit playing with your wifes Brillo pads , looks like you didn't .
rzage

 

I wish i could play with my wife Brillo pads she doesn,'t let me anymore 20 years is a long time I need new pads

Jazzcoins

 

Come on Rusty, you know my wife dosen't have brillo pads.... I have to borrow them from our maids!

 

Late to the party, but I would agree with the raised lines. It may be easy to scrub around Washington, but none of the lines seem to go across the letters either. That would be a trick to brillo the fielda and miss the letters.

I'd take the coin. An example of an interesting die state if the lines are raised. Maybe they were trying to grind out the dot in the field.