VOCABULARY TERM: FLATTENED RELIEF

Flattened Relief. Low relief, or very low relief (as coin relief or stiacciato). A somewhat imprecise term, as the relief is not flattened but purposefully modeled that way in very low relief. Perhaps the first to develop a style of such low relief was Donatello (1386?-1466), the Florentine sculptor who broke with classicism to employ a more realistic depiction of his subjects. He is considered the founder of modern sculpture, and widely used low relief, which he termed rilievo schiacciato (roughly translated as flattened relief). It is this very low relief that is necessary for coin models so that dies made from these models can strike a coin in a single blow.

The term flattened relief is not widely used in the United States, but does recall an apocryphal story of U.S. Mint engraver George Morgan. The height of the relief on the galvano pattern of Anthony de Francisici's 1921 U.S. silver dollar was too high, he wished to lower it – and did so by hammering it with a wooden board!

Such a dramatic action would be unnecessary in modern times. The sophisticated die-engraving pantograph can not only raise or lower the height of relief automatically, but also can alter the die camber of the background while mechanically cutting a die from any pattern. See relief, stiacciato, pantograph.

References:
NC8 {1988} Breen, p 460.

To read the complete entry on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
Flattened Relief (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/dictionarydetail/515933)

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