Question about US coins and low relief

LanLord

I know that our mint has lowered relief on circulating coins to a point that there is almost none for the reasons of mass production. It's easier to move planchettes through the machines faster if the hammer die only moves a millimeter or fractions thereof.

Why can't our PROOF coins, which we are paying a significant amount of money for, use a substantially increased relief? These coins are supposedly specially fed into presses which multi-strike with increased pressure. This sounds like it should be a no brainer to increase the PROOF relief and start producing some much more appealing products.

Something that harkens back to the first St.Gaudens releases perhaps. Well, that may be a stretch, as we would actually need to have some talented engravers working in the mint, but one can always dream.

cladking

The greater the relief the more metal flow and greater the wear. Higher relief
also requires a higher coining force which also increases the wear. It's probably
not so much the cost of the dies which causes all the problems as it is the fact
that the die shop is over booked. It has been stretched to capacity over the last
several years as the output of the mint has soared. They don't want to invest
the money in additional die making capacity. Until something changes in coin de-
mand, usage, or die making capabilities it's unlikely much will change.

coppercoins

I once suggested a call for having the mint and proof sets be a different "set" of coins from what circulates. As far as I'm concerned, they can take the junk they're circulating now, have the designs be nothing more than the required legends and a number showing denomination, and leave it at that. The "sets" we pay dearly over face value for should be made of metals with intrinsic value (read: silver) and should have deep designs that have life to them. They would be considered the "collectible" coins while the utilitarian pot metal discs they make for circulation would remain so...circulation.