The coarsening of Pb-rich α Pb domains in eutectic Sn–Pb solder during isothermal annealing has been studied in some detail. The importance of anisotropy and of coalescence events and the occurrence of a dynamic scaling regime are discussed. Orientation imaging microscopy reveals the presence of the following two distinct crystallographic orientations between α Pb and β Sn lamellae in quenched eutectic Sn–Pb solder: [0 0 1] α Pb ∥[1 0 1] β Sn and (0 1 0) α Pb ∥(1 1 1) β Sn ; [1 1 1] α Pb ∥[0 1 0] β Sn and ( 1 ̄ 1 0) α Pb ∥(0 0 1) β Sn . The domain size distribution function is found to approach a dynamic scaling regime and coalescence of domains is shown to be the dominant mechanism for the growth of domains larger than the mean domain size.