Posted 05/09/2019 10:42 pm
It's my understanding that in most mints and medal/badge factories, the normal practice for medal making is to produce what is known as a "lead pull". Before the dies are fully hardened, they are placed in a low-pressure press and a piece of soft lead is used as a "blank" to produce a roughly-shaped, usually uniface "medal". This allows them to inspect what the "final product" would look like while stil being able to make any necessary changes to the die, if needed; once the die is fully hardened, no further changes to it can be made.
Whether the lead pulls are kept or disposed of and recycled would depend on the standard operating procedure of the mint in question. Either way, lead pulls usually do not leave the mint/factory, unless the factory closes down. I know some collectors in my coin club managed to acquire some historic lead pulls when a local medal-maker closed down a few years ago.
Whether the lead pulls are kept or disposed of and recycled would depend on the standard operating procedure of the mint in question. Either way, lead pulls usually do not leave the mint/factory, unless the factory closes down. I know some collectors in my coin club managed to acquire some historic lead pulls when a local medal-maker closed down a few years ago.
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
