Whizzed, cleaned, or just mint luster?

I recently obtained an 1862 silver rupee. In hand, the coin appears to exhibit nice bands of mint luster. On close examination, however, I noticed a pattern of marks across the surfaces. They seem to be more in the fields than anywhere else.





I own a couple "whizzed" coins and this coin doesn't look like them, but...being new to modern coins I'm wondering if the marks on this rupee are normal mint luster, or if they are cleaning marks, or whizzing marks.

Thanks!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

They appear (to me) to be under not across the letters. If so, that would be something with the die, such as polishing.

 

They might be radial flow lines (caused by die deterioration), but I'm not quite sure. Are the areas with the "lines" more lustrous/shiny?

 

That’s what I think, too, die polishing reaching the surface and shallow devices but not the deeper areas of the die.

 

That makes sense. It is pretty much restricted to the fields and doesn't appear to hit the edges of the lettering or go over it, like you'd expect with whizzing.

Hard to tell, but I think so. Would this be from microscopic fractures in the die surface?

 

+1

 

Nice. Do we get to see the whole coin?

 

Soon! I want to take some better photos and then I'll have it ready to post.

 

It's similar to dirt erosion during a heavy rain. As the metal flows to fill the design, it slowly "erodes" the dies.

 

The erosion causes the dies to be etched with microscopic lines. Light reflects off those lines causing a "cart wheel" effect on BU coins.

But they are microscopic. I'm not sure they wil show at all on an image.

 

I agree

 

The lines in the OP photo correspond to what I see on a lustrous Kennedy half, which is about the same diameter. I can make those out clearly with a 10x loupe. So "microscopic" is a bit of a stretch, at least if the die's seen some wear.

 

I see die clash marks obv between portrait & U of Queen. That die got some abrasive work.

 

Flow lines are usually radial. The lines on the coin shown are not radial. They appear to be curved. This might sometimes be an indication of whizzing.

However, in this case, I think the lines are a form of luster from die erosion. The reason that the lines are on an arc path might be because the coin was struck on a large screw press. The impact of the rotating screw on the back of the die can cause the die to twist a little bit as it strikes.

 

Thanks for the input everyone! I'm glad it's not a manipulated surface. The striations are not really visible to the unaided eye and even under magnification, it depends on how the light is hitting it.