What happened at the Mint in 1973...

ChrisH821

that made misaligned dies on Lincoln cents so common?
Has anyone else noticed this or am I just imagining it?

CaptHenway

I never noticed it. Could have been a new and inexperienced die setter working in the press room, but that is just a guess.

segoja

There is a lot of 1973 dated cool errors. So cool someone had to have walked them out of the mint.

Maybe this was part of that experiment.

FredWeinberg

They're probably common because
no one noticed them in the 'bins',
the presses kept striking 'em like that,
and ergo - they're in circulation.

They're not the type of error that would
easily be spotted by the press operator.

gonzer

My collection of 1973 Lincoln errors won 1st place in the Major Error category at Error-A-Rama in '73. (toot toot). One of the coins was a massive mis-aligned obverse die that was probably 30% off center. The reverse had a corresponding 30% non-strike. 73 was a golden year for errors especially since it was the first year of the large designer initials, thus making non-dated errors easier to peg as a '73.

ChrisH821

An example I pulled from circulation a couple years ago. They usually aren't this far off though.

CaptHenway

@gonzer said:
My collection of 1973 Lincoln errors won 1st place in the Major Error category at Error-A-Rama in '73. (toot toot). One of the coins was a massive mis-aligned obverse die that was probably 30% off center. The reverse had a corresponding 30% non-strike. 73 was a golden year for errors especially since it was the first year of the large designer initials, thus making non-dated errors easier to peg as a '73.

It was the first and ONLY year of the large FG. They were small 1959-72 and medium 1974-2008.

I happened to be the one to report this to Coin World. I got a 1973 cent in change on Jan. 6 of that year, noticed the change, and dropped it in an envelope to them as a first report of the new year's coinage and oh by the way.... I figured it might be worth a paragraph or two in Clearinghouse. Must have been a slow news week as they splashed it all over the front page.

The reason it happened was that Gilroy Roberts had gone off to work for the Franklin Mint for more money and Gasparro became Chief Engraver. There were problems with the 1972 hubs and so he made a new reverse for 1973, and since he was now the boss man he enlarged his initials. The Mint must have been embarrassed by the publicity as he reduced them a bit in 1974.

TD

gonzer

@CaptHenway said:

@gonzer said:
My collection of 1973 Lincoln errors won 1st place in the Major Error category at Error-A-Rama in '73. (toot toot). One of the coins was a massive mis-aligned obverse die that was probably 30% off center. The reverse had a corresponding 30% non-strike. 73 was a golden year for errors especially since it was the first year of the large designer initials, thus making non-dated errors easier to peg as a '73.

It was the first and ONLY year of the large FG. They were small 1959-72 and medium 1974-2008.

I happened to be the one to report this to Coin World. I got a 1973 cent in change on Jan. 6 of that year, noticed the change, and dropped it in an envelope to them as a first report of the new year's coinage and oh by the way.... I figured it might be worth a paragraph or two in Clearinghouse. Must have been a slow news week as they splashed it all over the front page.

The reason it happened was that Gilroy Roberts had gone off to work for the Franklin Mint for more money and Gasparro became Chief Engraver. There were problems with the 1972 hubs and so he made a new reverse for 1973, and since he was now the boss man he enlarged his initials. The Mint must have been embarrassed by the publicity as he reduced them a bit in 1974.

TD

I did not know about your involvement in this matter Cap'n. Truth be told if it weren't for the large initials some of the better dateless cent errors for that year would still be languishing in obscurity.

ricko

Great history and Thanks @CaptHenway for recounting it for us..... Cheers, RickO

StrikeOutXXX

After all the 1972 Doubled Dies on the Lincoln Cents - the Mint went back to a past practice of putting lugs on hubs and dies for better alignment. I wonder if 1973 had a small learning curve with the change in procedures?

Hemispherical

I like threads that bring up coin history, especially, when a forum member was a part of the history, @CaptHenway.

fiftysevener

'73 was a good year for large dollars after '72 had different types. Like them or hate them they are large coins !