Walter Breen
german silver: Any of various alloys of copper, nickel, zinc + trace elements. See argentan.
goloid: Dr. Wheeler W. Hubbell's alloy: silver with a little gold and copper. In practice it was indistinguishable from standard silver save by chemical test.
grain: A weight = 1/480 troy oz. = 1/5760 troy lb. = 1/437.5 oz. avoirdupois = 1/7000 lb. avoir. = 0.0647989 gram. U.S. coins have always had their standard weights defined by law in grains. Even the nickel 5¢, which was a sop to metric thinking at 5.00 grams, is legally tariffed as weighing 77.16 grains.
grained edge: British equivalent to our term reeded edge.
guinea: Gold coin valued at 21 shillings, formerly current in Britain.
gules: Heraldic term for red (from French gueules, 'fur neckpiece dyed red,' or the color of such neckpiece); represented by parallel vertical lines, as in the vertical stripes of the U.S. arms. See azure.
hairline (d), hairmark(ed): (Bearing) minute to microscopic scratch(es) on a proof surface, the result either of cleaning with baking soda paste or other abrasive, or of wiping with any cloth less soft than the coin's surface. Ant.: pristine.
half crown: British silver coin of value 2 1/2 shillings (2 shillings 6 pence)
half dime: U.S. silver coin, 1794-1873, = 1/20 dollar, 1/5 quarter or 5 cents
half dollar: U.S. silver coin 1794-1964 (more recently sandwich metal) = 50 cents
half eagle: U.S. gold Coin, 1795-1929, of value 5 dollars.
half penny: (collective pl. halfpence) British copper or bronze coin, officially 1/24 shilling, 1/480 pound sterling. The term was also used to mean coppers (q.v.), though they passed at rates more like 1/15 or 1/14 shilling until the 1790 "Copper Panic" which collapsed them to 1/60 shilling or worse.
hammer method: Ancient manner of stamping coins. The moneyer fixed the lower die in an anvil or tree stump, rested the blank on it, placed the upper die atop the blank, holding it in place by hand or tongs, and signaled his assistant to use a sledge hammer. The method was faster than the first screw presses, and very dangerous for moneyers' fingers.
"Hard Ware" 18th century euphemism for unofficial or counterfeit coins. Ex usual term for coppers in casks in bills of lading, ships' manifests, etc. Hence "Hard Ware Manufactory" as a euphemism for a firm whose major output was in fact counterfeit coppers.
HIBERNIA coins: Generically, any Irish halfpence, from the name HIBERNIA found on all types, Specifically, in American numismatics, Wood's Irish halfpence and farthings 1722-24, shipped over here in quantity as Hard Ware (q.v.) after the Irish, roused to wrath by Dean Swift's "Drapier's Letters," had refused to accept them in payment for anything.
hub (n.) A type of die used not for striking coins but for imparting designs to working dies. Later hubs included lettering; still later ones included dates. (v.) To impart a design by a hub onto one or several working dies. In this sense, the design is said to be "entered" or "transferred" - ordinarily two or more entries are necessary, the die blank having to be annealed between them to remove stress-hardening. See shift.
incuse(d) Sunk below neighboring surfaces, intaglio (q.v.) Ant.: embossed, in relief, cameo.
Indian head cent: A misnomer. Common name for the Longacre design of cent, 1859-1909, showing Ms. Liberty (after a Greco-Roman statue known as the Venus Accroupie, in one of the local museums) adorned with a feathered headdress. No Native American ever bore that profile!
inscription: Words on a coin, in any position. Generally, the term legend is reserved for inscriptions around the periphery.
intaglio: Sunk below neighboring surfaces - said of a design, whereas 'incuse' more often refers to lettering. Working dies are intaglio so that the coins will show devices and letters in cameo. Ant.: cameo, in relief.
Janvier lathe: Type of reducing lathe or three-dimensional pantograph, used for making master dies or master hubs or puncheons in actual size from enlarged original models, since about 1907.
knife-edge, knife-rim: Raised line at outermost rim of a coin, from where metal was forced between die and close collar; called a 'fin' in the mint, and commonly a 'wire edge' by coin collectors. Not diagnostic of proofs.
large cent: Copper cent, originally weighing 208 grains, later 168, coined 1793-1857. Not called large cent until about 1860; earlier known only as copper cent.
legal tender: Coins with this status may be offered in payment of any debts or taxes and must be accepted in such offers of payment. The U.S. Constitution limits this quality to gold and silver, for which reason the legal tender status of bronze cents (Act of April 22, 1864) and of nickel coins (Acts of 1865, 66, etc.) has been the subject of many disputes over constitutionality.
Legend: Inscription around the periphery of a coin or medal.
lint mark: Small shallow incuse mark on a coin, inflicted at the moment of striking, when a fibre of any kind (generally from a cloth used for wiping dies) is compressedbetween die and blank. Not an impairment.
Logotype: Punch containing more than one digit of a date, or a name rather than a single letter. Date logotypes began being used in the Philadelphia mint about 1840, either 2-, 3- or 4-digit units according to size.
Lord Baltimore shillin: Lightweight silver coin of XII (= 12) Pence Maryland standard, issued in 1659 by Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore (second holder of the barony, 1605-75, founder of Maryland colony) for local circulation; for which reason he was summoned to appear before Star Chamber but was saved from execution by the Restoration.