CoinTalk Members Discuss Lines Found on a Morgan Dollar After Dipping

This article is based on posts in a thread on the CoinTalk collector forum titled "Another question about planchet flaws, pre and post mint damage." The posting date is not given in the source. Everything below is what forum members reported or believed; none of it has been confirmed by a grading service or other check.

What the poster reported

The poster, Barney McRae, said a Morgan dollar bought raw was sent for grading and came back "MS, Questionable Color."

McRae briefly dipped the coin and removed most of the toning. According to the post, this left striation lines that were not visible before dipping, and the lines were still there after a second brief dip.

McRae described the lines as covering both the fields and the devices, perfectly uniform across the entire coin. Because they cross the devices, McRae did not believe they were die polish lines.

McRae quoted a description of roller marks, which form when a silver ingot is rolled thin before blanks are punched out. In a later post, McRae said that description had been found from AI.

What other members said

Pickin and Grinin said the striations and the Questionable Color designation have nothing in common. The member also wrote that silver and clad coinage are different: because silver is a softer metal, a good solid strike often obliterates the roller marks on rough planchets, but does not eliminate them completely. The member then asked the poster for photos of the lines.

longnine009 linked a PCGS article about technology for detecting doctored coins and said the effort started in 2011.

The poster shared a borrowed photo of an 1879-S Morgan dollar graded MS64 by NGC, saying the obverse did not have the striations and was omitted as not pertinent. The poster wished it had been the obverse and said it was hard to tell whether the lines continued through the fields on the eagle.

ToughCOINS wrote that many prooflike 1921 Morgan dollars show very noticeable striations. Pickin and Grinin said of one photo that the lines were die polishing because they end at the devices. ToughCOINS apologized for misreading which coin was meant and agreed that there are not many Morgan dollars profusely covered in rolling marks.

The poster said a scope would be used to try to photograph the coin once it arrived. Within the source, the thread did not settle what the lines on the poster's coin are.

Source: CoinTalk, "Another question about planchet flaws, pre and post mint damage."