Does anyone have a link to video of the process of hand punched mint marks? I'm interested in seeing it done but I can find video.
Probably because the last time mint marks were done by hand videos weren't made that often. The technology was primitive by today's standards.
last time mint marks were done by hand was 1991 for business and 1985 for proof and video was alive and well by those years, you would think there would be video documentation of the process for historical purposes.
when I try and search what I am looking for I keep getting a bunch of you tube get rich off of coins rubbish. I was hoping that someone here had a more direct link if there is one. If not thats cool I will keep looking and digging through the typical google crap.
Not really, at least not if one knows the history of the mint and it's basic policies. Ya see, for most of its existence the mint has always been very secretive about how and why they do certain things - and not do other things. For example, until recent years the mint would go to extreme lengths to make sure that they never produced any coins that were scarce let alone actually rare. The last thing they wanted was collectors snapping coins up and removing them from circulation. They'd seen it happen, the 1909-S VDB cent was an example. There were others as well. They even did everything they could to discourage the very idea of scarcity or rarity with bullion coins - which is why none of the ASEs or AGE ever had W mint marks on them even though they were almost all made at the West Point mint. But then in recent years they changed their policies, they began to go out of their way to produce scarce coins, even intentionally marketing them as such. It was a night and day switch from 2 centuries or previous policy. Also, their policy always was that they didn't allow cameras inside the mint. So to think that they themselves would make video's of the mint mark process ? Simply put it is/was something that there was no way it was ever going to happen. Until recent years they never allowed or took pictures of anything let alone videos of it.
Eric, I should have asked you in the previous post, but what exactly is it you wish to know about the process ? I mean, there's not that much to know really. Once the master dies were made the mint employee would pick up a metal punch with the appropriate letter on it, he'd place it on the die and hit it with a hammer. Then the master die would be used to create working hubs and they in turn used to create working dies. That's really about all there is to it. My point is, what could a video tell us that we don't already know ?
There was a long article, I think by CoinWeek on how they handled Mint Marks. There was only still photos available. It showed the stamps, how they hammered the Mint Marks during die maintenance, etc. So there's a really good article out there .. somewhere.
This article shows one of the photos from that article I mention above https://doubleddie.com/58243.html apparently from "This photo, courtesy of Error Trends Coin Magazine (ETCM) and Arnold Margolis, shows a Mint engraver getting ready to punch a mint mark into a working die. The working die is held in a vise. His right hand is positioning the mint mark punch and the mallet that he will use to tap the mint mark punch into the die is being held in his left hand." So just search around for that ETCM article. Remember the US MINT operations were all about making coins and improving the quality or speed and efficiency, etc. Not about making professional archival videos of the work that they did. Even the US MINTs videos today do not go in detail and miss a lot of the entire production process which varies some from mint to mint.
Some people are visual - like me, and just like to see things. We know about it. We know how it's done. Not the same as seeing it. Probably why the porno industry is a billion dollar business.
Paddy provided a video to give me a idea of how it was done. As Nyatti said some people are visual and just reading about it doesn't always provide the answers needed. I know they want to keep certain procedures confidential but out dated tech and procedures shouldn't matter if the public sees how it was done but hey it's a part of the government and they do what they want.
