Luster question

What you just said Chris is the same thing just about everybody says, and the same thing is printed in more books written by experts than I could count. It is what we, all of us, have been told and taught since we first started with coins.

But take a look at the coin in your avatar and stop and think for a minute. A planchet is flat when it starts out. It is then sent through the upset mill which is a roller but a roller that squeezes from the edges inwards. This makes the outer edge of the planchet thicker than the rest of it. That helps makes sure there is enough metal there to form the rim when the coin is struck. But the rest of the planchet remains flat.

Now looking at your picture, the central device, the bust is raised, so are the letters and numbers, and the rim of course. Most of the metal that forms the rim comes from the upsetting. But where does all the rest of the metal that forms the bust come from ? Rather obviously it comes from the fields, the only flat part of the coin. And where are the fields ?

So, which direction does most of the metal flow when the planchet is struck ? Obviously it doesn't flow outwards, it flows inwards, which is where the bust is. And of course this is true on most coins.

Now the end result is exactly the same, the luster is definitely formed by the flow of the metal. But it is the direction of the metal flow that we are taught that is wrong. The majority of the metal, that comes from the fields, flows radially inwards to form the central device. A small amount will flow outwards to form the legends, date etc, but only a small amount.

The point being that there are several things that we are all taught, things that are written by the experts. But some of those things are just wrong. And for us to truly understand coins we have to be able to figure out what those things are. This is just one of them.