Isabella quarter is without distinction". The "American Journal of Numismatics" had other criticisms of the quarter: Minting of what Barber dubbed "showy quarters" began at the Philadelphia Mint on June 13, 1893, six weeks after the exposition opened. Leech had planned to strike the pieces using polished blanks, or planchets, and workers at that mint handled the coins carefully; unlike the half dollar, surviving specimens display relatively few contact marks from other coins. The first piece struck, along with numbers 400, 1,492, and 1,892, were struck in proof condition and sent to the Lady Managers along with certificates attesting to their status.
Bell metal (representing Absolute and Relative Truth) is also sometimes used. A similar alloy is employed for the gongs, saron, demung, and numerous other struck metallophones of the Indonesian gamelan ensembles. In this case the tin:copper ratio is traditionally given as 3:10 by weight. Whereas bells are cast and then left to cool, the metal of Indonesian gongs and metallophones is cast as rough blanks which are then hot-forged to their final shape with hammers. Bell metal was used to cast many early Spanish, Portuguese and "Malay" cannon, most notably the Malay cannon known erroneously as "Rentaka". In Java, bell metal mixtures