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Message:: [QUOTE="foundinrolls, post: 1802001, member: 4350"]This has to do with die wear and die dressing, as it is called.  To prolong the use of dies as long as they might be seviceable,  dies are often removed from the presses, cleaned and abraded (polished) and then reinstalled in the presses. A new die has the full depth of the lettering effecting the strike of the coins.  As a result, the serifs on the letters are more fully formed and the lettering itself is struck to its fullest width. As dies are polished(abraded), some of the surface of the die is removed.  As a consequence, the letters become smaller and the serifs less pronounced.  The details of lettering usually gets smaller (more narrow) as you work your way down into the surface of the die.  On a struck coin, the lettering can appear to be smaller and spread more far apart when struck by a die that may have been abraded several times during its life.   This, of course has nothing to do with the reason for the Wide AM varieties on Lincoln cents as that was caused by a mixup in the use of dies meant to be used for proof coins.  That did not happen with the halves. We see thinning of letters quite a bit on nickels and coppernickel-clad coins like quarters , dimes and halves.  For those who are really into quarters, for example,  we see a lot of this on quarters dated 1982, 83 and 84.[/QUOTE]