The Major Steps Of The Minting Process *updated*

Okay, so we've explained the planchet making process, and have gotten most of the way through die making, and why sub-types and varieties come about...now for die varieties:

When the master hub is used to make master dies, and the master dies are used to make working hubs, and the working hubs are used to make working dies, similar processes take place for each of these steps. In order to press the design into each subsequent step of the process, the receiving end of the design has to be heater just right to accept the design. In the past, the design was pressed into the receiving end a number of times to completely fill out the design features. At any point in this process if the receiver wasn't aligned perfectly with the giver, doubling would result...a doubled die. Depending on how far up the process this happened, we could end up with dozens or even hundreds of dies with the same doubling...because if the doubled piece were a master die, it would be used to make dozens of working hubs with the doubling showing, and they would be used to make dozens each of the working dies, further reproducing the same doubling. This happened on cents in 1972, where some minor doubling was created during the master die phase, and this minor doubling was reproduced through the remainder of the process ending up on hundreds of working dies.

Mintmarks were added to each individual working die by hand until 1990. This allowed each individual die to sport its own unique problems with how the mintmark was applied. This is where repunched and over mintmarks happen. In 1990 they went to a new process where the mintmark was included in the master die making process, which removed the need to punch the mintmark into individual dies. The process of adding the mintmark to the master die was watched VERY closely so doubling would not occur, and this effectively removed any future chance of repunched mintmarks and over mintmarks.

Over dates and repunched dates operated in much the same way, but ended in the very early 1900s when the entire date was included in the process BEFORE the working die stage, so that every working die was hubbed with the entire date intact. Repunched dates and over dates occurred because the large design reduced to the small design did not have the entire date on it. It was used from year to year in order to save money. At the end of the die making process, you could see hundreds of dies without a complete date. Punches were used to complete the date on each die by hand. Because the human hand was involved, these punches could bounce, be out of place, etc. allowing for wrong digits, doubled digits, etc. Up until some time in the late 1800s the date was punched into individual dies - thus allowing room for fault in punching the digits, thus repunched and over dates.

Beginning with the 20th century types, the date was included in its entirety somewhere in the hubbing process so that by the time the working dies were hubbed, the entire date was placed into the die by machine, not by hand. This removed all possibility for repunching date digits, henceforth removing the possibility of repunched and over dates.

ALL 20th century coins exhibiting two different dates on one coin are doubled dies, NOT over dates. This includes the 1918/7D nickel, both 1942/1 dimes, the 1943/2 Jefferson nickel, and others. These are the result of hubbing two different designs into a die (a class 3 design hub doubled die), instead of the result of erroneously punching the wrong date into a die (an over date). ALL series of coins that started during the 20th century had the dates completed in the epoxy stage, so there IS NO SUCH THING as an overdate or a repunched date on Buffalo nickels, Lincoln cents, Mercury dimes, Standing Liberty quarters, Walking Liberty half dolalrs, Peace dollars, or any coin that came out after those.

(note: the information above was edited on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 8:15 ET to accomodate for necessary changes to correct possibly incorrect information, as noted below by other members.)

Next post..

Now...a question that has arisen numerous times, and the answer to that question. Can coins come out as sub-types, varieties, die varieties, AND errors?

Yes.

A with stars die that is a variety because the stars had to be moved farther from the rim could be a sub type and a variety. If the hub with the sub type and variety end up doubling the image on a working die, we end up with a coin that exhibits a sub type with a variety that's a doubled die. If the mintmark was placed into the doubled die incorrectly and it is doubled, we end up with a coin that's a sub type, variety, doubled die, and repunched mintmark. All this is ON THE DIE. Every coin struck with this die will end up showing all these characteristics.

Now...if this die is hung on the press and a clipped planchet comes through and is struck, we now have all the above WITH a planchet error - a clip.

If the clip causes a problem with the feeder finger that shoved it into the striking chamber and doesn't seat itself properly for the strike, we could end up with a sub-type, variety, doubled die, repunched mintmark that is an off-center struck clipped planchet...a striking AND planchet error.

You see, any of these processes can happen at any time, but are completely independent of one another. Die errors occur to the die once it's on the press, but this is completely independent of the problematic sheet of metal that ended up being blanks that are going to split open after they are struck...we end up with a clashed die coin that split after strike - a die error AND a planchet error all on one coin.

I was actually privy to witness a 1917 doubled die cent once that split apart...a die variety AND a planchet error.

I hope this helped. If it didn't, you should print this and read it again and again until it does help. These terms are ALL used to describe completely different things that happen in the minting process, and they are indeed very different from one another. If you call something a 'variety' that I define as a 'die error' then you're yet another victim of a LARGE number of collectors and dealers who do not understand the minting process or are too lazy to bother using proper terminology.

These, folks, are the facts...all above information is given to you for you to learn so you can use the proper terms. Errors are NOT varieties and varieties are NOT die varieties. They really are different. Learn them and call them by their correct names, and we will all know better what you're trying to describe here.

One minor addition to the planchet making process is that "blanks" are cut from the metal strip. Planchets are the result of a blank going through a milling procedure that imparts a raised edge around the blank.

So the "blank" is a raw disc as it is cut from the strip and the "planchet" is the result of that blank being milled in preparation for striking.

These two terms matter when we are dealing with "blank planchet errors" a term that uses both words together just to add confusion to what can be confusing numismatic terminology :-)