Something vanished from the United States Mint sometime between 2008 and 2022. No announcement was made. No one seems to have noticed. https://coinweek.com/the-case-of-the-missing-master-hub/
I am so sorry! Unfortunately, I did not write it considering attention spans! I will summarize for you: Implications are that Master Hubs are no longer a part of the die making process. If that is true, any attributions of Master Die Doubling that assume Hub Doubling are inaccurate.
The Mint is now moving beyond CNC milled Master Dies to Laser Engraved Master Dies. The 2024 American Liberty silver medals and the 2025 American Liberty gold coins (resurrecting the 1794-dollar designs) are the first to incorporate this technology. The 2025 Laser Engraved American Eagle One Ounce Silver Proof Coin is the first American Eagle Silver Proof Coin (with a laser-engraved privy mark) minted using laser-engraved master dies.
Another snippet RE: Master Dies (from an article on Mint Directors since 1793) “Joseph F. Menna: The 13th and current chief engraver, Joseph F. Menna, joined the coinage bureau in 2005 as a medallic sculptor. Since 2006, the Mint mothballed plaster models in favor of digital sculpting in the tooling process for directly producing master dies and working dies. Menna was named chief engraver in February 2019 by Mint Director David J. Ryder.” COIN WORLD April 6, 2026, “From presidential appointee to Mint Director’s choice”, by Paul Gilkes, COIN WORLD Senior Editor, page 33ff.
