Définition

• Edge Nick.  A dent on the corner of a coin or medal's edge, at the rim/edge juncture, where numismatic items are most vulnerable to damage from dropping or mishandling. British numismatists call this edge knock.
  Edge nicks differ from nicks or small depressions on a flat surface that can be removed by chasing. On the flat surface there is metal to draw from to eliminate the depression; because there is no such metal to draw from on an edge neck these cannot be chased and are therefore more permanent and serious.
  Test cuts are a kind of edge nick purposely cut into the edge of a numismatic item by unthinking people to ascertain the base composition. All plated items, particularly gilt and goldplated, are vulnerable to this practice; silver and silverplated items less so. It is a shameful mutilation of a numismatic item and obviously lowers its condition and valuation; there are other, less destruction methods of determining the item's composition.  See composition.

  excerpted with permission from

  An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

  For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

  COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

  Roger W. Burdette, Editor

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