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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Davada, post: 778142, member: 3344&quot;]Die polish lines are made when mint workers use tools to polish the surface of the dies. It&#039;s quite similar to the cause of &#039;hairlines&#039;, only the exact opposite -- here the lines have been applied at the mint rather than by an overzealous coin cleaner.</p><p><br /></p><p>Because the die has been &#039;hairlined&#039; rather than the coin itself, die polish marks show up as raised marks, rather than incuse lines. At this scale, though, it&#039;s awfully hard to tell the difference without a decent magnifier.</p><p><br /></p><p>There&#039;s another good indicator to tell you that you&#039;re looking at die polish rather than hairlines, though. Usually, hairlines will show up most heavily on the design high points and the fields, and the little nooks and crannies of the coin (like around lettering) will appear clean.</p><p><br /></p><p>With die polish the opposite is true: the high features of the coin will be largely clear of marks, and the fields (including areas around lettering) will be marked.</p><p><br /></p><p>That Franklin half is a great example of heavy die polish: the devices are clean and heavy, parallel striations are seen that extend right through lettering as if it wasn&#039;t even there. Personally, I love the look.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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