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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tom Maringer, post: 179403, member: 7033&quot;]<b>Rim cracks</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Not a silly question at all! Those are actual cracks showing that the silver has been pushed slightly beyond the limits to cold work for this alloy. Most of the coins have those cracks, and they are all different, so the pattern of cracks is diagnostic for each individual coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>To make these, I weigh out about 6.5 grammes of silver shot or clippings on a digital scale, then smelt them with a prop-oxy torch in a niobium crucible. I actually use sterling clippings for most of it, but I mix in bits of scrap jewelery so I say that they&#039;re coin-silver just to take care of the fact that they might assay slightly below 92.5%. When the metal has melted thoroughly and is rolling easily in the crucible it&#039;s poured into a little round mold in an alumina block to harden and cool. It is now a little round lump or &quot;button&quot; of silver. A four-stage process then smashes that button out into a more-or-less round blank shape and cleans up the oxide skin. The spreading force tends to elicit tensile forces in the very edge, which results in these splits and cracks. They do not run deep, seldom much beyond the rim. </p><p><br /></p><p>Since I started making coins I&#039;ve learned more modern techniques of blankforming (rolling out sheet and punching blanks) but I get the most comment about this earlier style, BECAUSE it shows the cracked edge, and many people like that a great deal. This is one of the lessons I have to learn over and over... being a perfectionist can be a problem. If I was to modernize my methods and equipment... I could put out product that is nearly as perfect as the large mints. But why? They are already doing that. By sticking with ancient techniques I can create the same look that ancient coins have, which has a deep and visceral appeal.</p><p><br /></p><p>The circulation process is proprietary... it&#039;s taken a great deal of experimentation to figure out how to approximate the look and feel of a heavily used coin. But I will say that it does involve the use of a rock-tumbler with various chemicals and media.</p><p><br /></p><p>So... I guess I&#039;d say that the cracks are not DELIBERATE so much as they are simply a feature of the method of blank-forming I use. But I LIKE them, and I&#039;m not trying to eliminate them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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