I'm not too big into polish lines, but I DO love me some dramatic flow lines, especially on proof Mercs.
I had a Morgan like that. In PCGS plastic. Dealer said it was cleaned and worthless. I have not been back to that shop since. I always found their ethics questionable. That only proved it.
The nerve of some people. He just wanted to buy it from you for a song and then resell it for a huge profit. I don't think one can be a dealer and not understand the difference.
Bottom line die polish lines are a flaw, a mistake, a screw up, something that is NOT supposed to be there. And anything that is not supposed to be there should count against the grade - just like contact marks, hairlines, scratches, gouges, etc etc do. But, people can like anything they want to like.
Having worked in the tool and die industry years ago I can appreciate what someone went through to make dies look as good as they did especially when it done was almost 150 years ago. I won't be a Debbie Downer, I like them...
That's just it Dave, they didn't go through what they were supposed to make them look good - they did a lousy job plain and simple. When dies are polished there are different steps, they use course diamond paste in the first step followed by finer and finer grades of diamond paste in each subsequent step. And whey do the final step - there will be no die polish lines visible. But when they skip the final steps and only do half their job - then die polish lines are visible ! That's why they are only seen on some coins and not all of them. Because somebody only did half the job they were supposed to do.
Now I'm confused...a fellow told me I had a polished die 5c even after I stated it was a proof. My question to him was why did this PF have 100% mirror?
Hey Tammi, can we see a higher resolution photo of the nickel? I cannot determine from the pics whether or not your coin has die polish or not.