From Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Coins, page 257: "Gone is much of the rugosity of Black Diamond's hide, gone too are many details of the Indian's hair, wrinkles, and feathers."

I recalled that word immediately from when I was writing the first edition of my Buffalo Nickel book, though I resisted the temptation to include it in my own descriptions. Walter Breen was decrying Charles Barber's habit of smoothing out the fields of all new coin types that came his way from outside sculptors. The deeply textured surfaces were in vogue among artists of the time, as they diffused the light and permitted easier viewing of the design. The prevalence of sandblasting or otherwise imparting matte surfaces to coins and medals was an extension of this same trend. Unfortunately, Mr. Barber's conventional thinking found such practices objectionable, and he replaced the textured fields with smooth, shiny ones at every opportunity. The Type 2 1913 nickels and all succeeding pieces were so treated, as were the dimes, quarters and halves produced midway through 1917 and thereafter.