Ever notice all the dots in the center design of early US coinage. Most are probably familiar with the big dot in the center of the reverse on the Classic Large Cent and Half Cent. It is kind of hard to miss. But did you know the obverse has one also? As do most of the coin designs created in the early years. It may not be as noticeable or even visible on an actual coin. Following is a series of images of different early coinage with circles drawn using this dot as the pivot point.
Certainly the placement of the dots is not a coincidence. All I can do is provide a guess being for the purpose of locating and securing a jig used when punching different design elements into the die. But it is probably best left to the early coinage experts for an explanation.
If I remember correctly, the dot was a pivot used by a compass to trace out where the letters and design elements were going to be.
