Such as a D/D/D or a D/S or something like that? How can a mintmark be stricken twice or three times but the rest of the coin fine? Also, Why does it seem like every 60's - 70's nickel i find seems to have a doubled D or S? (on the nickels with mintmark on the reverse by the steps)
so...every mintmark...on every single penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half, dollar, ect EVERY SINGLE coin the mintmark is stamped by hand? Id hate that job...
Not on the coins - on the dies. And it is not done that way any longer. Now the mint mark is on the hub.
not every single coin, but every single die. someone correct me if i'm wrong, but a die can make around 250,000 coins.
haha so im still confused. if the mintmark was/is on the die and the coin is only struck once then how is it doubled? is it already doubled on the die?
The mint mark was hand punched into the die...and sometimes they didn't put it in the exact same place as the original.
Yes the die that strikes the coins has had Yes when the mint mark was added by hand to each die, every coin that die strikes will have the doubled "D" or whatever you are referring to. That is why they are called die varieties and not errors. They (the mint tech.) knew in most cases that they had struck the mintmark and overstruck it in some cases but let it go into production anyway - they did not care so much with most D/D because a die is an expensive item to produce, production is everything and these were considered a minor thing at best. Also it is not an easy task to fully punch a complete mintmark into a working die with one blow at all. There are literally dozens of other forms of doubling that mimic these types of doubling and are not die varieties. Please get a Cherry Pickers Guide to learn more as it is not a easily understood subject and requires considerable study even to begin.
The die is put in a bench vise, the mint worker selects the appropiate MM punch. The worker places the punch on the die and strikes it with a small mallet then inspects the die to see if the MM was deep enough for coining. Many times it takes 2 or more blows with the punch to get the MM just right. If the punch wasn't seated perfectly then you end up with the RPM's.
Sometimes a die with a MM already punched in had its destination changed, therefore the correct MM was added over the original MM. OverMintMark (OMM). Sometimes it was just a mistake and then corrected...
Since 1990, the mint mark has been applied directly to the hubs that make the dies, eliminating the hand-punch process that resulted in RPMs.
