What happened to this coin? My first guess was whizzed since it has weird looking luster but I'd like to know for sure, since I'm always happy to learn something new. Here's the link: http://m.ebay.com/itm/1819-25C-SILV...-QUARTER-B-3-SMALL-9-/291542478512?nav=SEARCH
@NSP As @dfraser said, there are no signs of whizzing. If it had been whizzed, you would see polishing lines all over the surfaces. Chris
Whizzed, and or whizzing is another one of those terms where its definition has become corrupted, changed, altered, (pick your word) to mean all kinds of things, depending on who is using it at the time. Originally whizzed had one and only one meaning, it was used to describe a coin the surfaces of which had been altered by someone using a wire-wheel brush device, typically on the fields only, resulting in a series of very fine lines/scratches that covered the coin. This was done in an effort the simulate the look of luster in order to make a person viewing the coin think it was higher grade than it really was. A whizzed coin had several diagnostics that were easily seen by experienced eyes. Most would see it at a glance because they have a very distinctive look. But closer inspection would reveal pushed up metal at edges of the devices and legends - a result of the grinding done by the wire-wheel brush. But today, whizzed is often used to describe coins that have had any of a number of things done to them to alter the surfaces of the coin. And it can be either the entire coin or just the fields. Polished coins for example are often said to have been whizzed, when they were never whizzed at all. A polished coin has an entirely different look than a whizzed coin. But, people seem to insist on bastardizing the definitions of words and so it has become what it is, with few aware of the differences. Suffice it to say that in the end whizzed is used, even if incorrectly, to describe a coin with altered surfaces. And any coin with altered surfaces, regardless of the method used to alter those surfaces, is just as bad as any other. And all of them are problem coins.
The reason why I was thinking whizzed was because there appear to be parallel lines by the second A in America.
Looks whizzed to me. Whizzing moves metal around on the surface of the coin and the near total lack of marks indicates (to me) that is what happened here.
I'd call it a whizzed coin. It has been harshly and abrasively processed to impart artificial flow lines and simulate a luster it didn't have before being destroyed. Gross.
Well that's kind of the problem, there are all kinds of things that can cause parallel lines on a coin. Using a brush, of any kind, it can be a small paint brush, an artist's brush, a small cleaning brush, literally any brush, on the surface of a coin can cause parallel lines on the surface of that coin. The same with using a cloth or even the tip of your finger to try and wipe a spot or a bit of debris off a coin can cause parallel lines. Laying the coin down on almost any surface can do it, same with picking one back up. Basically any movement of anything across the surface of a coin can cause parallel lines on that coin. But yet none of those things have anything at all to do with whizzing.
The seller states, albeit in smaller print: I purchased this coin in 1978 at the Long Beach Coin Show. Please check out my other listings of RARE COINS! Coin has been cleaned over 35 years ago.
So it's unclear whether he bought it that way or did it himself. Either way, a whack upside the head is in order.
This coin @Bedfor posted is definitely whizzed. You can tell by the scalloped, finger-print-y pattern in the right obverse field. The eBay coin's surfaces is what this wheatie probably looks like from a few inches distance in relatively diffuse light.
Sorry, but somewhat a silly question. Cleaned, whizzed, buffed and no returns, you really needed help on this? Pass.