In 99% of situations, the first strikes off of a new die will have the most frosting - and will decrease a miniscule amount with each subsequent strike struck. However, there is no guarantee that the first strikes minted are the first in the machines or delivered to the cage. Example, what if they are stacked one at a time "hot off the press". In this hypothetical example, the Highest Frost Level would be on those at the bottom of the stack -- which could be the last ones delivered (or - if the whole stack was delivered - the last to be handed out from the cage). My guess is that sometimes the "first strikes" are the first available to Strikers and sometimes they take a little while.

In 1% of situations,I am GUESSING, that the first of dies may have been polished to a mirror finish across not just the "Fields" (the flat areas), but also by an inexperienced employee across the raised "Devices" (the raised designs and the Letters/Numbers). Or...maybe the Devices on the Dies were never subjected to the Sandblasting (old days) or Acid Treatment (Nowadays) which creates the "rough finish" to start with. In these cases, none of the strikes would be frosted unless or until the lack of Cameo Contrast was noticed and that Die Pair or a new Die Pair was treated with Acid.

These are my theories based on study of the minting process for coins. I'm assuming (hopefully correctly) that this is the process for Strikes as well. But I might be wrong.

Also, I believe that the reason that some Strike Catalog authors list only a handfull of Frosted Strikes (rather than one for every Strike ever minted) is that they are trying to list only those where the difference between the Shiny Strikes and the Frosted Strikes is so extreme (or is accompanied by other slight differences - but where the Level of Frosting is the easiest Pick up Point for collectors to differentiate the two), that the Frost is indicative of a different pair of Dies for a slight "Variety" to the primary Strike.

Best regards,

Dave W. SS-1044