@coinerrorguide from Twitter posted this and I thought it might be helpful. Good individual to follow on Twitter! The US Mint has confirmed all hubs are made in Philadelphia, then some are sent to Denver and San F. The D/S is added later. This creates deviations as more D's are added to other dies created. Four different die sets.
Are working hubs shipped to Denver and San Francisco? I thought that the working dies were shipped from Philly? The hand-punching of the mintmarks into the working dies was discontinued in 1990. By the way, the differences in the placement of the mintmarks are not considered varieties. ~ Chris
Master dies were shipped to Denver from Philly at that time and Denver made working dies for themselves and San Francisco. San Francisco finished the dies for proofs. I’m guessing that the person the OP quoted is saying there were only 4 sets of working dies for Denver in 1983? There are at least 3 DDO’s and 2 RPM’s listed. As high as the mintage was, there had to be well over a hundred if not 2 hundred.
Keeping this stuff straight is tough. I think I learn it and have it in my head but a few years later, I'm having to learn it again. @cpm9ball You have 10 years on me but your memory is still much better than mine.
Technically they ARE different die varieties, as they were struck from different dies. It's just that nobody cares.
Until 1997 all dies and hubs were made in Philadelphia. Dies for the branch mints had their mintmarks applied by hand to the dies at Philadelphia (until the mintmarks were moved to the master die or hub in 1990) so mintmark positions will vary. 1997 and later Philadelphia sends a Master die (with the mintmark already in it) to Denver and then Denver makes all their own working hubs and working dies from this Master die. Philadelphia still makes all of the dies for San Francisco and West Point.
