Opinion: Once Working Dies Die, They Ought Not To Be Put Back To Work.

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Author	Replies: 5 / Views: 891
Kcm Valued Member United States 284 Posts	Posted 01/22/2021 09:43 am For any who don't know, life at the Philadelphia Mint in 1955 is legendary. A Two Cent tax increase on a pack of cigarettes (a crucial commodity in that day) caused everyone in the tobacco food chain to hoard one cent coins to make change. For example, vending machines could handle nickels, dimes and quarters, but not pennies, so sellers had to put three pennies in each pack as change. Imagine how many pennies spent time sitting in cigarette machines alone; never mind cash registers and mom and pop store safes. Pennies disappeared from circulation. The mint struggled in panic to fill the shortage. All hands on deck! darn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! 1955 coinage is rife with varieties and errors. Lots of fun for today's collectors. There's a small amount of PMD on this unfortunate piece but it seems that die pair that struck it had gone far, far past what numismatists dub VLDS (Very Late Die State). Comments would be interesting. Kevin Report this Post to the Staff

That Coin Dude Pillar of the Community United States 1427 Posts	Posted 01/22/2021 09:53 am yeesh. put that die to rest Report this Post to the Staff
BigSilver Pillar of the Community United States 2843 Posts	Posted 01/22/2021 10:25 am Interesting read about the cigarettes. I would have thought that something else in addition to die wear is responsible for this. Grease? Late stage Die Cap? Report this Post to the Staff
Kcm Valued Member United States 284 Posts	Posted 01/22/2021 10:43 am Interesting speculation @Big Silver. The 300KB image limit puts discussion at a slight disadvantage. I find the bust on the obverse to be almost equal in disgrace to the stalks on the reverse. Edited by Kcm 01/22/2021 11:08 am Report this Post to the Staff
ijn1944 Bedrock of the Community United States 19244 Posts	Posted 01/22/2021 11:23 am Yes, those '55 P cents were works of 'art'. I have a few dozen of the late die state '55 poor man's doubled die (PMDD)--complete with cracked skulls. Add to that several near PMDDs with die chips on the reverse. Would be interesting to see mint state '55 cents with all these issues. Anyone have some worth photographing? Report this Post to the Staff
Numisma Pillar of the Community United States 4963 Posts	Posted 01/22/2021 9:17 pm I've never heard that before, but I buy it. I've seen some pretty sorry '55 Lincolns. Strangely, it looks like Philly only minted 33 million in 1955, compared to nearly 72 million in 1954 and 421 million in 1956. Anyone know why that might be? Report this Post to the Staff
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