Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GoldFinger1969, post: 8271174, member: 73489&quot;]<b>Gam3, here are some key factors that determine eye appeal and appearance for Saints:</b></p><ul> <li>Die wear (older dies produce less detail)</li> <li>Luster:&nbsp; the steel die being stressed over time would get microscopic imperfections that transmitted to the struck Saint.</li> <li>Copper Spots:&nbsp; possibly caused by gold purity and silver and other metal contamination of the newly-struck coins.</li> <li>Black Spots:&nbsp; copper oxide, found on older coins when metal heating processes were less advanced than today.</li> </ul><p><b>Those are easy to see, these areas should be looked at closely for Saint striking quality:</b></p><ul> <li>Wear on high points like Liberty&#039;s knee and Eagles wings</li> <li>Any wear or dents on rim</li> <li>Hands on torch and hair strands near torch should be well-defined.</li> <li>Is torch and flame fully-formed or &quot;smushed&quot; ?</li> <li>Fingers on torch should be well-defined.</li> <li>Toes inside sandal on rock should be visible (5).</li> <li>Stars should have raised outline and flat center though this is hard to see on all stars and most coins.&nbsp; Flat stars = bad (but often normal for Saints).</li> </ul><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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