Are there any Mint dies you all have?

I'm wondering if any of you have an original US or other country's Mint die.

Are these illegal due to potential counterfeiting - so are they destroyed or kept in a vault by the US Mint / government? Even if it's discontinued coinage, it would flood the collector's market with fake coins made from these dies.

But, you never know... maybe there was a design contest and some dies were not approved for coinage. Those would be neat.


Pics from the 'net:

 

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I believe they would have to put a cancelled mark (a big X) like this:

Or deface the die.

 

I believe most are destroyed. I have seen some on sale on Ebay either with the face of the Die cut into or metal applied to it, maybe soldered on.

 

You beat my post by seconds! good job

 

I have a cancelled Nickel die, sold as a set by the Mint.

 

Where did you get he US dies from?

They should have been defaced, see Aiden's post above/.

 

I don't get why they're legal - couldn't they still be used to make counterfeits?

Someone could make a batch of silver coins and say that the coins are defaced (more valuable classic or pre-20th century coins). Or, they could possibly even fill in the defaced gaps (though this would probably be immensely difficult to execute but still possible).

Regardless, they're neat to look at and have, and I think it's a natural next step for my collection. I wonder if PCGS, NGC, or other TPGs would grade this as exonumia or other.

 

they put big x's on them.

 

These were argued against because they (collectors) felt that fake 'errors' could be made using a real coin and striking a part of the die against the, say bottom/ right/left/wherever to make it look like it had a double strike.

This never materialized.

A lot of panic over nothing

 

Some are given the torch - this makes more sense to me over simply digging X's into them, not sure why they put X's on today... maybe to make more money on cancelled dies? But wouldn't that be counterproductive since it would lead to counterfeited coins?

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Mint stopped cancelling dies with an X more than a decade ago and now the face is completely destroyed.

Chris

 

There are three types of US mint dies that are commonly seen on the marketpace. (commonly is a relative term)

First are the 1968 S proof dies that have their faces melted with a torch. Most or all of the die face is destroyed on these. These were sold by the GSA/mint as scrap metal back in the late 60's.

Next are the 1996 Olympics dies that were sold by the mint through their catalog. These have the X cut across the face of the die but the rest of the die face is intact.

Finally there are the coin and die sets that were sold by the mint to colectors in the 2000's. These had the entire face of the die removed with a surface grinder leaving a flat blank surface. These are probably the most often encountered.

 

Above the pictures he posted he wrote "Pics from the net"

 

Here is a thread about the cancelled die I used to own...

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coin-die-set-1998-dime.241872/

a couple of years before your "2000's" time frame.

 

Mine's one of these; it's ground flat.

 

http://mintnewsblog.com/2015/11/u-s-mint-tests-use-of-barcodes-to-extend-life-of-dies/

 

I said 2000's because I thouht I remembered the state quarter coin and die sets as being the first of these. Not too far off though.

 

I think I recall a passage in Roger's "From Mine to Mint" about some old CC dies that were discovered in a dump behind the building, and these dies were cancelled with an X. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Chris

 

I have seen some that the mint sells with the face completely sanded off.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/181972520107?item=181972520107&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466&rmvSB=true