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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 105242, member: 112&quot;]Flow lines are just what the name says they are. When a blank planchet is struck, it&#039;s flat, except for the raised rim. But when the dies strike it with thousands of pounds of pressure the metal of the planchet actually flows - it moves to fill all the recesses in the die. And when the metal moves across the surface of the die it creates flow lines on the surface of the newly struck coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is an exaggerated example, but imagine a glacier moving across the landscape. The bottom of the glacier isn&#039;t smooth, it&#039;s rough and jagged. So as it moves across the land it cuts into the land and leaves peaks and valleys.</p><p><br /></p><p>The same kind of thing happens when a coin is struck but to a much smaller degree. The surface of the die isn&#039;t perfectly smooth even though it has been polished. There are still very shallow valleys and ridges in the die and as the metal moves across these a mirror image of them is created on the surface of the coin. It is the flow lines created that produce the luster of a coin.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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