Okay, now I know there are some coins with ultra high relief, I am not as concerned with those. I am wondering if there is a way to find out the average relief depth of coins. I look at US coins and, of course, they are mostly ultra low relief...I cant even figure it with my calipers so I am thinking it might be somewhere around .001" to .01 maybe. But when it comes to coins, even the relief of a GIII Soho penny seems not to be much more than .02" - .03" deep...my calipers can hardly register that depth either. So I guess what I am asking is... is there any source out there listing depth of relief for ANY coins at all? It seems to me, .001 to .01" is more than deep enough to match US coins, maybe a little more for older, slightly higher relief coins. Its very difficult to measure such minute distances with an old caliper.
If there is such a source I've never heard of it - doesn't mean there isn't one though. I would think about the only place you could get that info would be from mint production/design records.
The relief is how the design stands up above the surface of the fields. Today, the relief is very low and below the rims of the coins. In days past, the relief was sometimes even above the rims. This is a medal that I used to own, it has the highest relief that I have ever seen.
Stunning...medals often have much higher relief. Some searches have come up with nothing online with such measurements. Might not be looking in the right places. I dont think I ever realize how low the relief on most coins are. When I thought about how deep one needs to cut the metal on a die, I started realizing that we are talking just .00x measurements. Especially modern coins that seem to be very similar in relief and very low with early large bronzes being an example of one obvious exception among others. It seems you get some higher relief coins that may top out at maybe .03 or .05 give or take....but even coins that seem so much higher a relief than others are actually very low in terms of how deep the cut in the metal actually is. If anyone is browsing around and happens along anything having to do with coin relief depth measurements for ANY coins think of this thread and maybe post it!! Thanks
thanks, GDJMSP! i first encountered "coin relief" when my holiday exchange from jeff arrived with information on the coin he sent... and i thought it meant high volume of mint :whistle: glad that's cleared... now it gets more interesting :smile
There are several definitions of relief but the one below applies to coins: relief - projection of an object above a surface The relief gives a 3-dimensional appearance to the coin's device. The higher the relief the higher above the coin's surface (fields) the device stands.
All I know is that in 2002 the German government modified the specifications for the €10 collector coins. The maximum relief height was about doubled; the plaster models - five times the size of the final coin - could now have 1.3 mm on either side. (See this https://www.deutsche-sammlermuenzen...ungen/praegefrisch/2002/detail_2002_04h.jhtml article in German.) For the coins that means, 0.26 mm each side (whereas before the relief height was between 0.09 and 0.13 mm). Of course, depending on the design, this 0.26 mm option is not always used. And sure, circulation coins are much "flatter" anyway ... Christian
So if I am translating measurements correctly, the plaster model relief which is 5x the size of the final coin is a just .05" with a final relief of .01" while before it was between .003" and .005" which I believe is probably close, if not a bit higher, to regular circulation coin relief Very interesting...thanks
I got to see the Ultra High Relief St. G that the Smithsoniam has on display. I never understood the hoopla. I do now. I'd really like to get one of the new ones, but considering the price, the money will be of better use filling holes in my collection.
