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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 701135, member: 112&quot;]Yes and no. Areas that are not fully struck up will not have the luster the rest of the coin does. And they will look very similar to what wear looks like. Wear and weakly struck areas will both show as a break in the luster. This, more than anything else is the sole reason for disagreements about the grade of a coin being either AU or MS.</p><p><br /></p><p>That said, weakly struck areas and areas with light wear can be differentiated from each other. But it is difficult. It can be so difficult in fact that the TPGs often resort to ignoring it on some series. They will instead sometimes require that a coin have visible wear in the fields before they call it AU.</p><p><br /></p><p>Personally, I strongly disagree with this policy. The difference between the two can be seen and they can be told apart. It&#039;s a matter of color more than anything else. But there can also be other clues to differentiate light wear from weakly struck areas. All it takes is a trained eye and a little knowledge.</p><p><br /></p><p>Pretty much everybody knows that wear on a coin shows up as a grey color as opposed to the more silvery color of an area with luster. Problem is, weakly struck areas are also a grey color. But they are different from each other in a subtle way. Wear will be a slightly darker shade of grey. And wear will also have very, very fine lines that cannot even be seen with the naked eye.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another way to think of it is texture. To the eye, wear will appear flatter and smoother. While a weakly struck area will have an almost uniformly course look to it. It&#039;s kind of hard to explain, but if you can imagine what the surface of a cameo looks like, grainy almost, that is what a weakly struck area will look like as well. It&#039;s kind of like a half luster, or a different kind of luster. And it doesn&#039;t show up the same because the flowing metal does not come into contact with the metal of the die. </p><p><br /></p><p>This is because as the metal is flowing into the recesses of the die to fill them it&#039;s bubbling up, kinda like how lava flows. Of course it&#039;s not as hot and liquid like lava, it&#039;s flowing because of great pressure instead of heat. So the surface will be ever so slightly uneven and somewhat course and grainy looking. Whereas wear will be flatter and smoother.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now as I said, the TPGs sometimes choose to ignore this difference and instead look for wear in the fields to confirm that it is indeed wear. But to me this is a cop-out. It&#039;s just an excuse because the two things can be told apart if you just have the guts to do so.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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