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Message:: [QUOTE="John Burgess, post: 7481166, member: 105098"]first I think you need a smooth coin edge for it to be apparent. next I think it's got more to do with the way the metal is worked from the beginning well before the blank cutting, upsetmill or the strike or the ejecting. I believe it's more of the "grain" of the metal/alloy itself in some cases. If the edge is lettered, or reeded, It's not going to be seen, but you will notice these kinds of striations on say an early sac dollar, but they are Horizontal as opposed to vertical, copper core, maganese brass cladding, but much less noticable with the edge lettering nowadays. So, in my opinion, like rings on a tree, metals form layers when heated and cooled into the material to then be rolled out into sheets, and I think depending on the direction it's done, determines the "natural lines" of the metal. I see this even on Steel plate, aluminum plate, Stainless, ect. theres these fine lines that aren't from the sheet rolling on the edge of the plate, or the shear,  and even if you cut it and sand it and polish it out, the fine lines are still there. I think it's some sort of flow line to the metal processing. However, I'm not a smelter, and never melted metal and poured it and rolled it out to sheet. So, I could be very wrong. Just going by personal observations.[/QUOTE]