Historians - Take Me Back To The Early Engravers

Was just admiring a seated half dime I have. It is a proof and is an absolutely lovely piece. As I was looking at every detail through a loupe it struck me just how detailed this tiny mint offering was....... Did the early US mint engravers tediously engrave every die by hand?

 

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Interesting question Randy. I would like to hear about them too.

 

I do not believe so. I just read an article in the Numismatist talking about early half cents. Lady Liberty was hubbed from the same hub that produced the first half disme, then details added like hair. I believe most major aspects of the dies were hubbed from master hubs long before the turn of the 19th century, but each die might have small details added on the individual die. Dates and MM were always added to the dies until much later.

 

I'm no expert in this whatsoever, but I think I read an article in the Numismatist (I don't remember which article or issue) that talked about "pantographs" or "Reducing Machines" that were used to make dies.

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reducing_Machine

As the article says, these allowed an engraver to make a large original and then the machine would make a smaller sized copy on a die. It also says that they first appeared around 1836.

Others likely have far more information than me.

 

Randy, it really depends on what year you're talking about. There was a *lot* of technology change throughout the run of Seated coins.

If you're talking about a later date, then most of those worked from a Master Hub which was used to make working dies through a series of transfer processes. On these late date coins, all of the details were on the master and only the date was hand-punched.

If you're talking about very early date, then the central devices were hand punched into each die using a matrix, and then individual letter or number punches were used to hand create each die. For Seated coinage, they did not hand engrave each die - but they did punch each element by hand.

Now, if you're talking really early US mint (Flowing hair era, 1793-1800ish), those were individually hand engraved dies.

 

Randy ....Peabody here......Sherman here..... Sherman set the date ?....B.C. Randy buckel up....

 

1792-1793, yes. After that, no.

in 1794/1795, hubs were used to make the devices and fine hair/wreath/eagle details were carved by hand.

after 1795, hubs were used with very little hand carving. Dies were hand carved to add tiny details like berries and the like. This was phased out after 1807.

letters, numbers, stars, etc. were hand-punched into dies until 1837 or so, when letters and stars became part of the hub.

 

Here is an example of what I said above, taken from Tompkins’ latest Half Dollar book. Note how there are no letters, arrows, shield lines, etc?



And here are some pieces of Italian mint equipment which would have been similar to what the US would have used to punch the devices.

 

Thank you for that. Thanks to all that responded to my curiosity.

 

Why were the shield lines left out?

 

So they wouldn’t break when the hub was punched into the die.

 

I should add that the obverses of 1793 Wreath and Liberty cap cents were all made using a hub and then adding details by hand. The reverses were made by hand

 

Lots of stuff about Charles Barber and the design of the Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles in Roger Burdette's book.