proofs

[Guest jules]

how do you tell a proof coin from anyother ?

[Master Jmd]

They look like proofs.... it's difficult to try to explain what a proof looks like, if you've never seen one. You need to buy a couple so that you know.

You are also very unlikely to find any proofs among piles of circulated coinage.

(that was a quote from the forum admin )

[Sylvester]

Proofs are struck from aspecial dies, sharper features and polished, so when proofs are struck they tend to be really shiny like a mirror and have very sharp features.

Obviously that's simplified as proofs often tone or loose that mirror image as they get older, Victorian proofs can sometimes look like their circulation counterparts.

The there are compexities such as matt proofs. But for modern coinage on the whole proof issues are struck so the surface looks very much like a mirror, whereas brand new ordinary circulation coins are just very shiny.

If you wanted to know the exact difference you'd have to see what a proof looks like next to a circ strike.