76 Nickel Questions

[Tuebits]

Hi again,

I noticed this 76 Nickel with missing detail.
Check out the attached photo's,
My thinking it's not caused by wear, but it's been missing since the strike.

Your thoughts.

Tuebits

[diamond]

If there's any loss of detail here, it would be due to intentional die abrasion ("die polishing").

[Tuebits]

Question, if it is die abrasion (polished out) causing this missing detail, wouldn’t the resulting effect be to raise that area above its original height?
Something like:
Original surface is recessed on the die would be higher on the coin; ----_----- (die), ___--___ (coin). And the opposite would also be true ___--___ (die) ----_----- (coin). So in this situation the where the surface of the coin is lower than the standard nickel, the die would have to have been filled while the outline remained.

So starting with a raised area on the coin, the die would already be in relief, where abrasion would have the little effect. This coin however, has relief area on the coin which would mean it would be raised on the die. The addition of material cannot be accomplished using abrasion as I understand it. Same as having a missing mint mark is accomplished when the mark is filled, not abrasion.

Tuebits

[diamond]

First of all, have you compared this detail with other nickels of the same year? If not, then do so and snap a photo so we can compare them.

Die abrasion will remove low-lying areas of the design. Any increase in overall height will be imperceptible.

[Tuebits]

Pie for me

Well it seems there is a slice of humble pie with my name on it. Little did I know the nickels changed from 76 to 77 where what a blank area became an area of detail. So of course I can not find a coin of the same year different than the one shown in the pictures in my original post. Could I have that pie alamode?

Tuebits

[Ed varietyhunter]

Question, if it is die abrasion (polished out) causing this missing detail, wouldn’t the resulting effect be to raise that area above its original height?
Something like:
Original surface is recessed on the die would be higher on the coin; ----_----- (die), ___--___ (coin). And the opposite would also be true ___--___ (die) ----_----- (coin). So in this situation the where the surface of the coin is lower than the standard nickel, the die would have to have been filled while the outline remained.

So starting with a raised area on the coin, the die would already be in relief, where abrasion would have the little effect. This coin however, has relief area on the coin which would mean it would be raised on the die. The addition of material cannot be accomplished using abrasion as I understand it. Same as having a missing mint mark is accomplished when the mark is filled, not abrasion.

Tuebits

You're making it sound like polishing/abrasion is sandblasting so it would take off the surface on the fields and in the recessed areas but that's not how it works.
On the die surface (inverted from the coin) the fields are flat and the details are recessed. When they polish it's more like sanding so it removes metal from the flat fields but not much in the recessed areas. So if they polish a die enough the mintmark would vanish. Only the more recessed areas will stay. Less recessed areas or details can vanish and become like the fields. Also if you read about the 1922-P cent you'll find that it started as a polished die that still had a shallow D then it became filled (that made the weak D) then they over polished it again and the D was gone (that made the no D).

Here's a few examples of how polishing can remove details:

no fg cent



no fg half