Question for Daniel Carr on coin presses

CaptHenway

ATS there is a thread about a janitor at the SF Mint in early 1917 who was in the practice of coming in early, starting a press set up to strike half dollars, and pocketing the coins.

It said that he was caught after his unskilled operation of the press caused damage that was detected, alerting the Mint to be on the lookout for somebody doing something unauthorized. It sounds as though the damage were to the press itself rather than something simple like dies clashing, though I wouldn't rule that out.

What kind of damage to a press could a janitor cause by running a press while not knowing what he is doing? I cannot believe that he ran it long enough for it to overheat due to improper lublication. Since you are our expert on coining presses, any ideas what he might have done?

Thanks

CoinZip

In 1917 I bet there were very few if any safety features on a coin press....

ricko

Dan would be the expert, however, having run companies utilizing presses, lathes, molding machnes etc., I can tell you that many things could happen, including a total jam of the equipment....did not have coin presses, but die stampers (high speed) could really be crippled by jamming. Cheers, RickO

CaptHenway

Interesting idea. I have seen multiple-planchet die caps that look like a tulip. I could see one jaming the press with the janitor having no idea how to clear it. However, would that damage the press?

dcarr

A number of different things could have happened. Most likely damage to the feeding mechanism or a die clash. If a die shatters, it is most likely as a result of a clash. Planchets are not hard enough to shatter a die. But when two hard (and brittle) dies come together, you could actually break off a chunk of the die. If that piece was not removed from the press, it could cause significant damage on a subsequent strike.

I do not know all the details of the feeding mechanisms on those presses, but they certainly weren't as "fool-proof" as modern presses. it is possible that the janitor somehow crashed the press into the feeding mechanism.

CaptHenway

Thanks!