Maybe I can clear up the frosting phenomenon question. Frosting is an indication of an early strike from a new die and has nothing to do with polishing of the dies.

It is important to remember when looking at a coin, token, medal etc. which has been struck in relief, that all of the high points appearing on the coin, token, medal (sometimes referred to as devices) are sunken (or incused) into the die. Conversely, all of the flat surfaces on a coin, token, medal, etc (called the fields) are the high points on a die. Frosting occurs in the sunken recessess of a die which is the high points on .... in this case a Silver Strike. Early strikes from these new dies will exhibit this frosting effect. As more and more strikes are made from this die, the die begins to wear and the frosting effect lessens with each repeated strike. On the other hand, polishing of the dies can only be performed on the high surfaces of the die (which appear as fields on the token). The higher the degree of polishing of the die (to remove scratches and stress lines) has the effect of higher morror-like reflective surfaces on the token. Coupled with the polishing of the dies, is the amount of pressure or number of strikes to create such items such as proofs. Proofs usually require multiple strikes of the die to the planchet (silver blank). Does any of this make any sense? If not, try this.

Take a piece of paper and draw a straight horizontal line for a couple of inches. Then from this line draw a step, then back down to the original horizontal line. The high point (step) represents a recess in a die (say a head of a person, or a building, or an animal, or a star, or a date) which can not be polished because it's incused and hard to reach in the die. The horizontal line on the other hand, represents the highest (flat surface) part of the die (which can be polished) and appears as the flat fields on a coin or token. Hope this brief explanation helps.