Walter Breen
activated: Said of metal surfaces when through any kind of physical or chemical action the top layer is rendered more susceptible to oxidation reactions (tarnish, etc.). Many cleaning agents activate coin surfaces.
adjustment marks: File marks, inflicted on a planchet before striking, to bring weight down to mint standard. They do not constitute impairment to a coin. After blanks were cut out from strip, but before they were sent to press for stamping, they were weighed; lightweight ones were returned to the Melter and Refiner's division, normal ones went to the press (being cleaned and given upset rims in the meantime), heavy ones went to the adjusters, who were women armed with files and wearing leather aprons. Weighing and adjusting sometimes had to be repeated several times. Every few hours the contents of the adjusters' aprons went back to the Melter and Refiners.
alignment: The angle at which coin or medal dies are oriented. In the USA, alignment for coin dies is normally 1800 or head-to-toe; if the coin is held at top and bottom and rotated, the upright obverse will face an inverted reverse. Exceptions are explained in the text. Normal alignment is symbolized. The opposite alignment, symbolized and technically called "head-to-head", is often called "upset reverse," a potentially misleading term (see upsetting). Intermediate die alignments, e.g. or can be best identified by marking the place on edge corresponding to the very top of reverse die, and seeing what point of obverse this matches. Orienting a reverse die is most conveniently done by making an imaginary line joining ends of legend or ends of value horizontal; in the Gobrecht dollars, the imaginary horizontal line to use is that which would join the two circular ornaments. See Restrikes and Fantasy Pieces.
alloy: 1) Fixed by law, the alloy of a coin is the proportion of metals making up its legal composition. Gold coins were originally' 11 / 12 gold, 1/12 copper, later 90% gold, 10% silver-copper mixture of which not more than half could be silver; silver coins after 1837 were 90% silver, 10% copper; nickel coins, 25% nickel, 75% copper, and so forth. The Guidebook gives legal alloys for all series. 2) Alternatively, in some contexts, "alloy" can mean the baser metal in such a mixture, as the copper in a silver coin.
alteration: Fraudulent change of one or more numerals of date, or addition, removal or change of a mintmark, etc., to make a commoner coin simulate a rarer issue. Rarely, the term 'alteration' can allude to changes made in a die, but herein there is no ambiguity between the two usages.
American scale: 16ths of an inch, so that "size 12 American scale" = 12/16" or 0.75". Antonym: Metric scale.
antedated fantasy coin: Herein, same as 'simulated series coin,' generally a date too early for legitimate issue of the design. Examples: 1804 dollar, 1804 plain 4 eagle, 1863-64 silver coins with IN GOD WE TRUST. 'Simulated series coin' can also mean one too late for legitimate issue of the design, e.g. 1884-85 Trades, 1913 Liberty head nickel, 1868 large cent of the type of 1857, etc.
argentan: Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger's version of German silver, consisting of varying proportions of copper, nickel, zinc, tin, antimony, etc., but no silver content other than accidental traces.
assembled: set A proof set completed over the months or years by buying individual coins. Antonym: Original set, q.v.
attribution Identification of die variety of a coin in the standard reference works for its denomination or type.
azure Heraldic term for blue, represented in drawings and on coin dies by parallel horizontal lines. The arms of the United States are "paly of 13, argent and gules (= red and white), a chief azure," and above the vertical stripes the upper third of the shield (the chief) shows these horizontal lines.
Bath metal: Brass (copper and zinc) with 0.3% silver added, which eccentric alloy was used for William Wood's ROSA AMERICANA coins.
blank: Same as planchet. See also cast blanks, rolled blanks.
blank-cutter: Machine built on the same principle as a cookie-cutter; rolled strip of proper thickness for the finished coins is passed within it, and the first-process blanks are cut out, after which they are weighed, annealed, cleaned, upset (rendered thicker at edgethan at centers), and finally sent to the coining presses.
border: Within the raised rim of a coin was formerly a protective ornamentation either of radial lines (see dentils) or beads; this is called a border.
bronze: Officially, an alloy of 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc/ lately 5% zinc."
bronzed: Given a protective coating by baking - bronzing powder onto a coin or medal: This process appears to 'have been invented iii the Boulton & Watt mint in the late 1780;s or 1790's, experimentally used in the Philadelphia Mint in the early 1830's, then commonly used on medals " In the l.860's. The composition of bronzing powder is unknown.
Bourse: Hall at a convention, where dealers set up commercial displays for selling their wares to each other and/or to collectors.
branch mint: Subordinate mint in some other locale than Philadelphia; presently Denver and San Francisco, formerly also New Orleans, Carson City; in addition, though not figuring in this study, there were the two "gold mints" at Charlotte, N.C., and Dahlonega, Ga. (1838-61), and the present-day auxiliary mint at West Point, N.Y, Branch mints did not make their own dies, but were dependent on the Philadelphia mint for completed working dies ready for service.
buckling: Die failure manifesting as compression and caving-in on the die, as a bulge on the finished coin.
Bungtown: 1)="Buttsville," a contemptuous epithet for Birmingham, England, source of counterfeit coppers; later also an epithet for North Swansea, Mass., locale of counterfeiting establishments. 2) Originally, therefore, any kind of counterfeit coppers; 3) more recently, the term has been misused (following Charles Schmall, who followed Atkins) to denote specifically the evasive imitations of halfpence, lightweight and often brassy, with legends such as GEORGE RULES / BRITONS ISLES, intended to deceive the illiterate.
bullion: Precious metal as received for processing by a mint. Hence, bullion value means the market value of the metallic content of a coin at the time of manufacture, not necessarily at any later time, not necessarily identical to face value. See seignorage.
burnished: Given a high gloss by a buffing wheel. Strip intended for making planchets for proofs was burnished; dies were originally burnished; but a coin' burnished after striking cannot legitimately be sold except as impaired, since this represents later interference with the intended surfaces.
business strike: A coin struck normally (only one blow from the dies) and intended for normal circulation or commercial use. Syn.: production coin; Ant.: proof.