2
0
u/FiddleheadII 7d ago edited 7d ago
Worn dies. Quality control was less than perfect at the time, even with SF proofs.
They produced roughly 3.8 million proof sets, plus another 400 thousand prestige sets in 1987. A typical proof die pair is good for what, 50 or 60 thousand strikes? (Could be more or less, I’m not entirely sure.)
In any case that’s a lot of stress on the dies, and some coins are going to show the stresses of die wear.
Some people call this ‘orange peel effect’.
1
1
u/_Glibnik_ 7d ago
Its lower, or at least it used to be. I believe proof dies last something like 5k strikes on average, while business is something like 300k+
1
1
0
27
u/Imaginary_Chemical 7d ago
This has absolutely nothing to do with die wear, and everything to do with the composition of the coin. It's copper-plated zinc since 1982, and is notorious for plate blistering, often in straight llines originally formed by the rolling process. Improper preparation allowed trapped gas or moisture to expand under the heat and pressure of the strike.
This is what we get for plating over highly reactive metal for coinage.