i've found half a dozen Ikes that have absolutely uniform striations in one direction completely covering the obverse. They are fine but visable with the naked eye. The uniformity becomes more apparent with magnification. i would think a brass wire brush wouldn't be so perfectly uniform. Another facet to the journey i guess, to figure out what the last guy did. That's why i like ol clad Ikes. They're big but, cost no more than a couple gallons of gas for the cherries. Steve
Sadly there are folks who whizz their coins with rotating wire brushes. The kind used in an electric drill often leave curved marks, but when the brush is mounted in a bench grinder, you get "nice" straight lines.
Awright, how did he hang on to it? With a gloved hand you'd have to grab it a second time. At that point i'd think you would not be able to grab it perfectly. in other words you might have diverging lines in one place. For what it's worth, the best thing i ever did was to buy a slabbed MS65 coin for an example. When people talk about cleaning etc. Although there is inherent coin to coin contact, there is no way to explain or duplicate the perfection of an authentic example. A press does what it does. When someone cleans or polishes it's obivous. It serves as a tribute to the mint, and to the many hundreds of years. Steve
One way it could be done with a rotating brush is to press the coin onto the wheel from the back. Are these striations raised or do they appear to be scratches into the surface? Also, there is a lot of planchet striating caused when the coin metal is rolled into proper coin thickness. These would show as grooves with sharp vertical sides under magnification, different from the round shouldered grooves caused by polishing. Can you post a close-up photo?
When I was young I used a belt sander to take the back off some pennies. Pressed them into some sort of rubbery cement that I could pry them out of once I was done.
With a 7X headset you can see the coin surface as the lands with a hair width (.001-.002") groove every 2-3mm. The valleys seem to have a 4-5mm wave to the bottom of them. If these were casino coins, is there anything like the feeder in abulkcounter that would do this? What about the one-arm-bandit itself? I'll try an muster a picture this evening Steve
Is the strike a little weak? If so they could be striations from the rolling mill left on the surface of the original planchet that haven't been wiped out by the striking of the coin.
Yes Conder, It is a week strike judging by the edge(rim) I keep thinking if it was an abrassion it wouldn't be so uniform. The striations runs from the brackground up over the devices/portrait with no shadow like if it was wizzed. As far as pocket wear, it is uncirulated but that's as far as it goes. Getting a photo proved illusive. I don't have a microscope/camera adapter. My wife (a banker) thinks it's tracks from a bulk counter. Steve
Hi, Steve. Does it look like this? I looked thru my Ikes and found a 1976D T1 with milling striations. The reverse is just awful and the obverse shows it a little. Usually, these striations are pretty much smashed away when the coin is struck, but there is a lot of surface area on these Ikes and the copper-nickel alloy is quite hard, so they don't always go away.
Wow, Thanks CDB1950 That's it! To be able to take a pic. like that, wow. Yes and tho the poor Ikes aren't going to the pro graders, it's nice to learn what is truely wiped, and the difference. Thanks again, Steve
