Engraving the date of a coin...

airplanenut

Since the numbers, through the years, are identical for each series, am I safe to assume that there is a master set of numbers applied to either the plaster or the master hub before the dies are created?

Jeremy

jonesy

MadMarty

I have an old die and they have numbers.

airplanenut

<< <i>I have an old die and they have numbers. >>

But were they created by hand, or from a mster set of numbers?

Conder101

What time period are you talking about? During the early years of US coinage there were many different styles used, basicly what ever date set was handy was used. In the latter part of the 19th century the date punches USUALLY were they same style for all denominations for a year but were often a different style each year. This was done as an anti-counterfeiting feature. With the modern coinage the dates are not added to the dies but are part of the original design and the galvanos from which the master hubs are prepared. And even on the modern series the dates have not always been the same through the whole series. For example the 3 on the cent was different before I believe 1934 and the 5 changed in 1950. There have been other changes as well.

(The different sizes of identical date punches used in the nineteenth century were created using the reducing lathe to make different punches based on an original master design.)

FC57Coins

Jeremy:

They stopped using punches in the late 80's and started engraving the dates and mintmarks as Conder mentions - until then they did a combination of engraving parts of the dates (like the 19, or the 18) and then finished the dates with hand punches. If you have access to a copy of the VAM book it mentions something about the use of date sets to put the dates on the dies.

Frank