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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Publius2, post: 22004883, member: 105571&quot;]I recently acquired this 1833 Capped Bust Half Dime, the LM-10 die marriage with a PCGS AU-53 grade.&nbsp; There&#039;s nothing notable about this coin except for the whitish, waxy-looking residue that is impacted into the denticles almost all the way around the obverse.&nbsp; The same material appears to a much lesser degree on the stars on the sides facing the rim.&nbsp; The reverse does not display any of this residue with the exception of a tiny bit on I of UNITED.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have seen similar impactions on other Capped Bust Half Dimes but only in circulated grades of XF to AU.&nbsp; None on MS coins or lower grade circulated examples.&nbsp; Nor have I seen this type of residue on other 19th century denominations but then I haven&#039;t been looking for it.&nbsp; It spurred me to speculate on the source of this residue and encourage you to comment and speculate also. </p><p><br /></p><p>Forthwith, photos including a closeup of the obverse denticles with residue followed by&nbsp; my speculations in order of my view of most likely to least likely.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1543975[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1543976[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>1)&nbsp; Residue left over from some sort of cleaning product, most likely a soap.&nbsp; Raises the question of why almost none of the residue appears on the reverse.&nbsp; But the soaps of the 19th century were not the highly developed formulations of today.&nbsp; And the graders at PCGS did not assess the coin as cleaned nor can I see any evidence of a harsh cleaning.&nbsp; That doesn&#039;t preclude a soap wash with an insufficient rinse.</p><p><br /></p><p>2)&nbsp; Back in the 19th century, the envelope industry didn&#039;t exist so most letters were mailed using the folded-up paper of the letter itself to serve as the envelope with the closure flap sealed by a wax dollop, often with an impressed signet into the hot wax.&nbsp; I call it wax but it could have any of numerous formulations involving bees wax, turpentine, candle wax, paraffin, etc.&nbsp; Usually, people with means had special signet seals purpose-made for this duty.&nbsp; But poorer people may not have had or needed such equipment and may have used whatever was at hand to imprint their letter seal.&nbsp; Could that have been a coin?&nbsp; The half dime at 15.5 mm is right in the size range for a typical letter closure seal.&nbsp; And this may explain why the residue appears almost entirely only on one side of the coin.&nbsp; The user might have liked the obverse better or may have wanted to use the date for some purpose known only to them.&nbsp; I did some internet searching looking for anything related to the use of coins as a signet during the 19th century and found nothing.</p><p><br /></p><p>3) The normal human oils and environmental grunge that circulated coins are prone to gather.&nbsp; This doesn&#039;t really explain the uniform color of this residue nor it&#039;s appearance almost exclusively on the obverse.&nbsp; Most coins I&#039;ve seen with circulation grunge in the devices show evidence of multiple sources of contamination.</p><p><br /></p><p>4)&nbsp; Someone dropped the coin into a vat of pig fat being rendered down to lard.&nbsp; Mostly a tongue-in-cheek explanation.</p><p><br /></p><p>Please feel free to comment or speculate.&nbsp; And if you think I&#039;m seeing zebras where there are only horses, go ahead and say so.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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