Has anyone noticed that on the new Washington dollar that the mint mark and all writing on the edge of the coin, shows upright on the reverse edge on some coins and upright on the obverse on others. In other words when you hold the coin with the obverse looking at you and turn it up on edge the lettering is upright only part of the time.At other time it is upside down. Bruce.
John, I would think if the dies are all the same then they should all come out the same way, I could be wrong not sure how they press this coin. Bruce.
John, You could be right, this is the first time in years that the mint has done edge lettering so maybe it takes another process for the edgeing. Bruce.
On the business strike coins the orientation of the edge lettering will vary, up or down in relation to the obverse. On the proof coins all the edge lettering will be up with relation to the obverse. The edge lettering is a separate aspect of the overall minting.
There is an interesting article in last week's Coin World that explains the edge lettering process. As noted by others, it is a separate step and because the coins arrive in the hopper oriented randomly (face up or face down) the edge lettering is also randomly oriented.
