Edge Lettering At Its Infancy In The States

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,374
mdpmedia Pillar of the Community United States 3546 Posts	Posted 07/28/2016 5:02 pm Anyone ever heard of 'Castaingination'? Sounds like a tough one but this process was actually in use on US coins in the very beginning cerca the late 1700s. From the research I did this process was technically referred to as 'milling' and implemented before the 'strike' of the obv. and rev... Also the following is a related excerpt from The U.S. Mint and Coinage by Don Taxay: "This ingenious machine was built on a table and consisted primarily of two parallel bars, one fixed and one movable, each containing half the device... The movable bar was grooved at the top, and slid along a thin rail. The operator placed two planchets between the bars and gave the crank a partial turn. This rotated a cog which worked along the rack, thrusting the moveable bar forward sufficiently to entirely rotate the planchets. The distance between the two bars could be adjusted by means of two large screws which held the fixed bar." Report this Post to the Staff

mdpmedia Pillar of the Community United States 3546 Posts	Posted 07/28/2016 5:04 pm Here's some further clarification via a visual breakdown of the fundamental concepts of the Castaing apparatus having its origin in France: http://mint.lunarcc.org/notebook/no...taingination Report this Post to the Staff
mdpmedia Pillar of the Community United States 3546 Posts	Posted 07/28/2016 5:06 pm And one of the big wigs overseeing this concept was Tommy Digges who wrote a note to one of the founding fathers way back in 1793: http://founders.archives.gov/docume...1-25-02-0312 Report this Post to the Staff
biokemist6 Bedrock of the Community United States 12437 Posts	Posted 07/28/2016 5:35 pm Although a bit more mechanized and automated nowadays, that is essentially the same process used to add edge lettering to the golden dollar business strikes. It allows for a higher throughput than edge lettering applied with a segmented collar at the time of striking. Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16827 Posts	Posted 07/28/2016 5:57 pm It's a quiz question I've used more than once at coin club quizzes: "What did a Castaing machine do?". Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
DoubleEagle20 Pillar of the Community United States 1748 Posts	Posted 08/01/2016 08:26 am Yes. I'm a bust half collector. In addition to the edge lettering, the Castaing machine also served to give the planchets the edge upsetting. Report this Post to the Staff
Conder101 Bedrock of the Community United States 17884 Posts	Posted 08/01/2016 8:45 pm Correct, so it was used for the plain edged coins as well. Since all the planchets would have to go through the machine (well not the copper after 1796, those planchets came in ready for the press), it makes you wonder how many Castaing machines they had. Report this Post to the Staff
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