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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;krispy, post: 724266, member: 19065&quot;]Engraving has many applications, here it is being referenced to designs incised on decorative weaponry and engraved printing plates, which are incised lines on steel plates, that hold ink for transferring a design to paper in the printing of currency. </p><p><br /></p><p>Both are applications of traditional engraving. Western engraving for the purposes of printing dates back to the European middle ages and to the armorsmith, who created decorated designs incised on decorative armor and early weapons. This is the kind of ornate armor which you can see in museum collections of medieval armament. Engraving for printing grew out of artisans who had a background or lineage in the guilds that worked armor.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coin designs however are technically <u>not</u> &#039;engraved&#039;. Coin designs are conceived in illustration and then <i>sculpted</i> in bas-relief (low relief) on larger scale plaster or composite discs. These then are transferred in various processes to other more sturdy mould-to-die making materials, beginning with softer rubber or silicone and on towards steel using a pantograph that reproduces a coin design and also reduces the design accurately down to the scale of a coin. Throughout this process the design is attended to, and from these large steel designs, further reduction of the design takes place in the creation of coining dies. Here&#039;s a general photographic and descriptive <a href="http://www.fleur-de-coin.com/articles/moderncoinminting.asp" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.fleur-de-coin.com/articles/moderncoinminting.asp" rel="nofollow">overview</a> of the initial process of sculpting the design and transfer to die stages.</p><p><br /></p><p>While some of the tools (burins, burnishers, oils, work set-up) and techniques of the engraver are put to use by a &#039;hobo-coin&#039; artist, essentially what they are doing is sculptural. You will often see the term &#039;carved&#039; as it refers to the cuts and reworking of the metal into new sculpted forms in the manipulation of the material. A hobo-coin has a surface that is not flat nor solely composed of incised (engraved) lines for printing. To some degree the incised lines of a hobo piece might be closer to scrimshaw, those designs engraved or incised into metal, wood or more commonly bone, that are filled with ink or soot and wiped from the surface allowing the lines to remain filled to reveal a design.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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