I have a die set for a 2003 Illinois quarter that I bought from the mint. On the COA it states the In Service Date: 12/16/2002, Number of Strikes:155,670 Retirement Date: 12/16/2002 and Reason for Retirement: Piece Out Engraving My questions are: what does "piece out engraving" mean? why put into service and retire die on same day? I imagine that there was a problem with the die's striking surface? Is the quarter that came with the set, made by this die or do they just put in any quarter?
According to their website, the quarter is struck from that very same die. Not sure what "piece out engraving" means.
It is the Mint's shorthand for die failure. If written in longhand it would be - a piece fell out of the engraving (or die). This is not unusual at all. The Mint produces coins at a prodigious rate, something like 12 coins per second if I remember correctly. This particular die is only one of those worn out in a single day. The life of a die can vary greatly, anywhere from striking as few as a dozen coins to striking over a million.
Wanna hazard to guess how many coins were struck before they noticed the damaged die? Since errors are found in circulation, do they try to remove the errored coins or do they just let them go as collectables?
The Mint is really very good at removing error coins before they leave the mint. Now with that said, it really depends on what that error is. As many collectors know, die cracks, small cuds, filled dies, and weak strikes are pretty common. Now the quality control systems used at the mints for circulation quality coins is far more loose than those at San Francisco and West Point. At Philly and Denver, they rely more on automated systems such as the riddler machines to catch the major errors. At the rate that they put out coins, small errors are of no consequence to commerce. It is only our small group that make such a big deal out of a damaged die. To answer your question though, the mint does try to fix any problems that they find as fast as they find them. Complete runs have been remelted and struck again in some cases.
WOW they actually will melt an entire run? Since the mint buys the sheets of metal from else where, do they send the coins back to them or melt them right at the mint?
