PART IV. Die Errors:
Defects Related to Die Polishing:
Trails and Wavy Steps
Definition:Trails or Trail Lines are raised tendrils that extend from affected design elements and gradually narrow and fade out. They reflect the presence of grooves in the die face. Trails most often extend from the corners of letters and numbers. This affect can be seen on all modern U. S. Coins (as early as 1921) as well as foreign coins.
Trails are generated by clumsy die polishing. Wavy steps are a form of trails.
Trails are produced when a rotary polishing or buffing tool is applied to the die face. Felt fibers or soft bristles are gathered together within the die’s recesses and further concentrated at the corners of design elements. The spinning fibers erode a gully into the field portion of the die face.
In the July 17, 2017 issue of Coin World, Will Brooks and photographer Ray Parkhurst provided multiple lines of evidence in support of the die polishing theory. Later, Sean Moffat experimentally reproduced trails by taking a finished die and applying a fine diamond grit to the die face. A rotating polishing tool swirled the grit around for 20-30 seconds. When the grit was cleaned off, a faint set of trails was exposed. The experiment was filmed and can be seen at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw4Q1NCUjY_aeUFsNUtSMlpLdU0/view.
For more information concerning this anomaly type, visit this site: click HERE
The images below show trail lines affecting E . PLURIBUS . UNUM . on the reverse of two different Lincoln cents.
1999P-1DER-033T
1994P-1DER-023T
The two images below, show trail lines affecting Washington quarters. The image to the left is an obverse die on a California statehood quarter with trails from the words UNITED STATES. The image to the left is on the reverse die of a Wyoming statehood quarter with trails affecting the words THE EQUALITY STATE.
2005P(CA)-25DEO-001T
