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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 618402, member: 112&quot;]That&#039;s it pretty much. What is any putty ? It is a substance used to fill in marks and dings to make them disappear. It is the same priciple whether you do it on your woodwork before painting or you do it on your coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>The key to being able to recognize putty on a coin is that where it is applied there will be a break in the luster. This is completely unavoidable. And is all but impossible to not get excess putty into the surrounding surfaces and flow lines in the metal (what creates luster) when you are trying to fill a bag mark, ding, hairline or small scratch on a coin. And once there, removing it without destroying the luster is also impossible since luster is such a fragile thing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now putty is applied mainly to gold, very rarely will you ever see it used on silver coins, and I don&#039;t recall ever even hearing of it being used on copper. This is because of color mainly, but it is also because there are far fewer collectors and dealers who have the experience with gold to know what they are seeing when they see it. So putty is usually missed by most. But as I said, a professional grader should not miss it.</p><p><br /></p><p>But remember what I said above - when trying to recognize if a coin has been puttied or not - look for breaks in the luster. They will be quite small but they <u>will be there</u>. You just have to look for them as you turn a coin in the light.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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