I hate to start a thread about this but is the uncirculated ASE that is in the 2006 ASE 20th Anniversary set a burnished one or a normal one.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]After heat treatment and annealing, burnishing, polishing, descaling and pickling is employed to make the surface of the coin blank brighter, remove any surface scaling or discolouration and in some cases apply a minute amount of lubricant to assist in coining. This process is carried out in a Vibratory or Centrifugal Finishing Machine that tumbles the coin blanks with a mixture of stainless steel balls and other media like ballcones and special chemicals, which etch and polish and brighten the surface. At times this process is preceded by a run in ceramic media. After burnishing in stainless steel media, the coin blanks are dried by passing them through a hot air drier or by tumbling them with heated corncob to remove all water marks and to prevent any subsequent tarnishing or atmospheric oxidation. The annealed, burnished and dried blanks are stored ready for coining. [FONT=Arial, Helvetica]The burnishing operation is also employed after stamping of the coins.[/FONT] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Ball Burnishing Machine with Inox, Stainless Steel Balls[/FONT]
You know Doug... I don't know to be honest. I always give credit when I copy something or where I find something, but I didn't see a source or name of the place where I borrowed this quote. I googled it. I will try to google it again and add the source.
OK, here it is. http://www.steelmedia.com/steel-burnishing-media.htm Sorry, I think it is from Technocon Engineers located in India... their website.
Let's say it SHOULD be burnished. The easiest way to tell for sure is to look for the W mint mark. Depending on where you bought it on the secondary market and I'm guessing that it's raw and not certified, someone could have swapped out the burnished one for a regular one hoping that no one would notice.
Well, that's why I asked. That may be the method they use, but it doesn't mean that is the method used by those who make the blanks for US coinage.