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Message:: [QUOTE="Conder101, post: 1929067, member: 66"]They problem is that a great many of the "first strike" coins are actually from the middle or even the end of the dies production run.  Die life especially on proofs, commems and ASE's tends to be very short.  Die life on proofs is less than 5,000 coins. MS commems and ASE's maybe 100K.  that would mean that for the MS commems or ASE's the die life is about 54 hours of production or about 4 days (assuming a 30 coin per minute coining rate.  So an ASE struck during the first 10 minutes of the dies life is a "first strike" and is sharp and well struck.  One from the same die 4 days and 53 production hours later, right before the die is retired, is also a "first strike" No, within the first 30 days of RELEASE or availability (Or in the case of ASE's with packing dates in the unopened monster box that were before the 30th day).  the coins may have been struck long before that time.  Back in 2006 when the First Strike first took off big, packing dates in monster boxes showed that the 2006 ASE's had been struck as early as Sept 2005, so the first five months of production all qualified for "First Strike" Designation.[/QUOTE]