The difference between wear and a soft strike?

[awl]

I was just looking through a coin catalog and coins with similar wear are sometimes listed a a soft strike or just wear. Is there a way to distinguish the two? or are they the same thing and "soft strike" is just a euphemism for wear?

[Mark Farrell]

This is my understanding, and I welcome input and corrections!

A coin wears from the highpoints, down. If you rub your finger over a coin, it will hit the top of the rim, top of most of the letters in the legend (unless they are "protected" by a higher spot that is fairly close, e.g., the crown of a head on the obv sheltering that portion of the legend), the highpoints on the bust, etc.

You finger will not hit anything but the high points, or at least within a reasonable distance to them (your finger, of course, is a bit malleable, so it could "wrap around" a letter in the legend a little bit, so it is technically affecting a bit more than the high point).

A weak, or soft strike, be it truly a soft strike or just worn dies, tends to affect all the detail on the coin, not just in the highpoints.

So, imagine a worn coin in profile. On a well-struck coin with fresh dies, the letters raise from the flat surface at a potentially sharp (near 90 deg) angle and are slowly degraded by contact. A soft strike can sort of "soften" the angle between the letter and the flan around it, sort of "rounding the corner" of that angle, if you will.

I imagine that telling the difference between wear and soft or weak strike takes a gob of experience. I tend to look to see if detail that would not be explained by wear is somewhat missing (e.g., the metal from the flan did not completely fill the die) and if so, then it is probably a weak strike.

At least, that is what I believe to be true, and I hope more experienced folks can confirm or correct what is at this point my opinion regarding the difference!

Mark

[slokind]

And a WEAK strike can also be a FLAT strike, in that the blow was insufficient to force enough metal into the intaglio to fill the parts meant to be in highest relief (often a cheek or a brow).  Pat L.

[slokind]

Here is an illustration of a flat strike on a 4th c. coin of a mint where flat strikes are hard to avoid:
• 05 I 00  AR stater.  Side, Pamphylia.  Obv. Athena stg facing l., with Nike on her r. hand, l. hand (with spear) resting behind shield, of which the boss is a gorgoneion or satyr mask (in profile).  In field, at left, pomegranate.  Rev. Apollo (?) to l.,  in knee-length chiton, with branch, before burning altar.
Pat L.

[Rupert]

This is a very good example of a flat strike, with the details of the die not completely filled. Here's a good example of worn dies. As Mark pointed out very well, on a worn coin, it's mostly the high spots that are affected; in case of a worn die, the transitions from the field to devices lose their sharpness. You can, of course, see it best by comparison. This Galerius antoninianus has an absolutely fresh and crisp obv. die, a badly worn rev. die, and no wear at all, which can be seen by the way the ear is clearly defined against the rim of the radiate crown.

Rupert

[SC]

It is not just earlier coins that are affected by flat strikes.  I find that flat strikes are also quite common with the late 4th century AE2 REPARATIO REIPVB issued by Gratian, Theodosius I and Magnus Maximus.

Shawn

[SC]

That sure looks like corrosion to me.  Doesn't mean that the reverse side strike was not bad once too, but the poor state now is corrosion and to some extend cleaning.  Bad strike alone would be much cleaner.

Shawn

[mestreaudi]

Thank you Shawn!
It seems totally plausible to me!

[Johnny]

This one is still in cleaning,  but has a very deep full strike compared to the worn ones I have


been playing with dies, and a few factors I came across were the depth of the dies,  the temperature of the metal ( coin ) , the strenght of the strike and of course worn dies,  anyone of these could contribute to a soft strike,  I assume that after hammering all day, a persons strikes would become weaker,   well  except for me  with the monster arms like Arnold