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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,553 |
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Valued Member
United States
83 Posts |
1943 Lincoln cents were made of steel, what did they do in advance to make sure the dies lasted striking the steel blanks as opposed to the copper blanks? Were the dies modified at all? I'd imagine they may have used a stronger alloy, and was wondering if anyone had any evidence proving it whichever way? Edited by nismojones
02/22/2011 6:33 pm
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Valued Member
 United States
83 Posts |
Oh and I tried searching, could not find anything other than the rare copper 43's and the steel 44's. That's about it..
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1388 Posts |
that's a really great question... I can't wait till the experts chime in on this one  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
672 Posts |
I wonder if they just heated the blanks hotter, seems like alot of work to make new dies, if they could make them last longer by changing the alloy... dont you think they would do it all the time?
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Valued Member
United States
83 Posts |
All I can really find is that the die's that strike normal coins are made of steel/steel alloy. So if they were striking steel then they would have gone through many dies if they weren't treated at least, hardened, cryo (if they did that back then? I do transmission work so I know a few routes of making metal harder/stronger)
There's probably a reason info like that is hard to find, or maybe I didn't dig deep enough.
Had another question also;
When they reach the end of the duration of a die's effectiveness, and it is worn out beyond the mint's standards, Do they replace BOTH the Hammer and the Anvil as a pair, or do they simply let each die run it's course and grade it at set intervals/check the strike efficiency/replace only the Hammer OR Anvil based on wear-
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Valued Member
United States
83 Posts |
Americana: Not sure on that one, Looking at it from an investment perspective: If I was running the mint that year, I would probably just invest in a stronger die or just have many more than usual of the same on stand-by. That's only 2 parts I have to replace when broken or worn out.
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Valued Member
United States
83 Posts |
Also I'm sure they do that all the time by making advancements in technology, and changing the alloy to make the die's last much longer. I just don't think anyone would really hear about it.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
I do not have any evidence one way or another that different grades of tool steel were used for dies to strike the steel planchets. Considering that this was the beginning of WWII, the Mint probably had to use the die steel that it already used for the sake of cost savings and efficiency. With that said, the steel planchets were problematic for die life. Many examples exhibit heavy abraded die doubling on the date and mintmark to an extent not normally seen on bronze wheaties. Many of them are VLDS(very late die state) with mushy details and cracks/chips are also quite common. Striking pressure and die spacing were adjusted but there was also an alteration to the hub design- a small groove was engraved around the bust to enhance the outline.
In regards to die life, obverse and reverse can be changed out independent of each other and they will not necessarily wear at the same rate. The hammer die tends to wear out quicker than the anvil die.
Edited by biokemist6
02/22/2011 10:39 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
If the planchets are harder, then the die life will be shorter. You save money on metal costs of the planchets and loose on die production costs.
No doubt the planchets were annealed to some optimal point, and the dies hardened. It becomes a balancing act, because harder dies can be more brittle, and die cracks can be more prevalent. One ploy the prevent die cracking is to make dies more robust without loosing hardness. This can be done with ferro alloys, where the alloying metals can be manganese, chromium or nickel in small amounts.
Question: Are die cracks more prevalent during these years?
Another question: does the Mint provide information on the number of dies produced in this period?
These numbers can then be compared with the die life of producing copper coins outside this period.
Edited by sel_69l
02/23/2011 12:53 am
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Valued Member
United States
83 Posts |
Not sure, but that would be cool if someone had a database of dies used/produced that year, or used. Might help to explain why some year US coins have dates/dates, maybe they had too many dies that weren't used and wanted to save money by modifying the current die? |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,553 |
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Posted 02/22/2011 5:58 pm
