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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;KBBPLL, post: 26506906, member: 104064&quot;]I&#039;m not sure if I get what you&#039;re saying. My understanding is that there was a design master hub, dateless, reduced from the galvano. This was then used to press a master die. That master die was then used to press one or more working hubs, which went on to be hubbed to however many working dies were needed. The master die could have been used across multiple years to create working hubs, as long as it remained in good condition, as there was nothing different from one year to the next. (I have no idea if they actually made a new master die each year prior to 1909 or not.) My understanding is also that they did not use the design master hub to directly create working dies. They could have, but if that became damaged they would have to reduce another one from the galvano.</p><p><br /></p><p>Prior to 1909 nickels, the date was then punched into each working die, as is evidenced by multiple date positions within each year. Starting in 1909, as pointed out by [USER=3926]@justafarmer[/USER], the date position was static within each year, but moved from one year to the next. To me this implies that starting in 1909, a new master die was created each year, and the date was punched into that, instead of each working die. Each hub then had the date in the same position, and all the working dies were also the same. However, I think they were also creating a dated master hub from the dated master die, and all the working dies descended from that one hub. </p><p><br /></p><p>My theory on the 1909 broken beer belly B (in a nutshell hopefully) is that Liberty was damaged on the master die created for 1909. Keep in mind that Liberty would be a raised feature on this die. Maybe it was poorly hubbed to begin with, or the damage occurred on the dated master hub when pressing it. A working die (or dies) was then created for both circulation and proof coins, and a small number of coins were struck with the damaged B. This damage was noticed, and Barber simply re-engraved the master working hub with a cleaner Liberty, which now had the &quot;regular B&quot;. The rest of the 1909 circulation and proof dies and coins descended from that. Keep in mind that the vast majority of 1909 nickels have the &quot;regular B.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;regular B&quot; disappeared in 1910 and all subsequent years because they simply made a new master die from the original master design hub, punched in the date, and went on about their business. Even though in my opinion the &quot;regular B&quot; is better aesthetically than the beer belly B, it was only re-engraved into that one 1909 dated master hub, and wasn&#039;t worth duplicating on the overall master hub. [USER=3926]@justafarmer[/USER] and I disagree on the circulation versus proof Broken B coins, because I feel that it&#039;s unlikely that a nearly identical broken B happened from two different things.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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