Coin Collecting Tips – The Cartwheel Effect
When looking to see if a coin in your coin collection is actually mint or if it has been cleaned and “shined up” to look mint, there is no debate on the best way to tell. Though it may sound funny, the way to tell is to see if the coin can do cartwheels. Yes, I said cartwheels.
When a coin is minted, the metal is actually changed on a molecular level to be poured into the dies (or molds) of the coin. The flowing metal, when it cools and is finished minting, has a fantastic luster. This can be attributed to something called “flow lines.” When the metal is poured, it is made to go a certain direction to be pressed. You can see under a magnifying glass the tiny flow lines radiating around the coin. This is obviously easier to see on larger coins. When held up to the light and rotated or pivoted, a band of light reflecting off of the coin will appear to spin or “cartwheel.” This effect can be seen without the use of a magnifying glass.
This effect is easier to see on the obverse (head) side of the coin. This is the best way to tell if your coin collection holds a mint coin or just a shiny one as once a coin has been circulated it loses that luster that causes the cartwheels.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.Comments are closed.
Posted on: Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Posted in: Coin Collecting Tips
Tags: coin collection