CLEANED? POLISHED? OR SOMETHING ELSE?

Are these cleaning lines or die polish lines? (1948 FRANKLIN HALF DDR FS-801)

 

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Hard to tell from photos, but the last big image looks like the hair may have been polished.

 

I wonder if whoever was working on the hair missed and produced that swath in the field behind it?

The scratches look more pronounced on the high points than in the fields. For die polish lines, you'd expect it to be the other way around.

 

I'm going with polished/cleaned(hairline scratches)it has weak fields and luster the Toning looks questionable.

 

Yes, someone put the buffer to it!

 

Looks cleaned to me and someone leaned into it behind the head.

 

I’ll simply say that it’s been tampered with.

 

"altered surfaces" is the best I can come up with, absent a definitive explanation.

 

I’m generally new to the forum and do not know of a way to respond to all (of that is even possible) aside from doing so individually. Nonetheless, I would like to thank everyone for their comments as all of you truly helped me reach a definitive conclusion. I had purchased the coin through an online coin auction as more or less, a fluke. Whenever I purchase coins online, I usually make sure to stick to graded and of course, slabbed coins from either PCGS or NGC. I have, however, discovered many “questionable” coins over the last few years (that were nearing an auction’s ending) which I decided to take a VERY small gamble on (no pun intended). As was the case with this one (which I had unknowingly won for $3.95). When it arrived, at first glance, it looked exceptional to me; however, under magnification, I instantly noticed what I believed were cleaning/buffing lines & scratches, and hence — tossed it aside. That was a year ago. I stumbled across it the other day and decided to take a closer look at it with the idea of posting it here on the site. I am so glad that I did! Thank you all for your comments!

 

You did excellent for 2x under melt otherwise,ebay?.

 

And about that toning, get this: Under “normal” lighting (LED, daylight and/or luminescent) the coin DOES NOT look anything like it does in the pictures. That is, with the exception of this picture here: the only that was taken with a DSLR camera, and with both the flash on as well as the coin held directly perpendicular to the camera lens. All of the other photos were taken without flash and inside of a light box. Sure, I can understand why a coin would look bright, reflective and shiny given some of the aforesaid measures, but for all of the other photos in which it appears both spotted and with an odd rim “toning” — I’m dumbfounded. And for the record, I did not manually manipulate the photos by adjusting the camera’s levels (i.e., aperture, focal length) nor did I use a lens filter or make any changes to the photo (other than to crop the images) prior to upload.

 

auctionsbywallace.com — I stay away from Ebay.

 

I’d by them all day in that condition and worse at $3.95. You did great!

 

The doubling is on the wrong side of the devices, I don't see a DDR in your photos.
Is that what the auction company sold it as?

 

Your coin isn't in a slab, but was the seller trying to say it was an MS quality coin? If you aren't happy with it, what are the auctions return policies, otherwise, for that price, it is a keeper in my book.

 

The coin appears to be a very early die state coin. It looks to be VF condition. The coin has a characteristic deep strike with sharp relief - much more detail than the typical business strike, it has semi-reflective fields and devices that occur from the burnishing that is applied to the dies. Very few people understand these coins. Good find!

 

Just hit the REPLY function on every post that you want to respond to. You can shorten what is bracketed or leave it as-is and it'll only show part of a longer post.

See how it works ? I responded to your question about responding and then hit REPLY to the 1st post and am now able to directly respond to that question/comment.

Each REPLY is set off differently in the post and segmented.

 

I would grade it AU details.

 

Thank you for your input. Does this mean though that it has not been altered?