Die States, or, The Journey of a Die from First Strike to Terminal State

Die States, or The Journey of a Die – from First Strike to Terminal State

In answer to a recent question, and sort of as a natural outflow of our discussion about Luster, I thought I would take a few moments to talk about die states. What are die states, and why are they important? How can we tell what state the die is? Die states are very important to some numismatists, especially those concerned with die varieties. Collectors of early US coins love learning about die states, for reasons we shall get to shortly.

Every time a die strikes a coin, the metal flow of the coin wears on the die. Between two strikes, this change is imperceptible, but over time a great change occurs on the die. If you were to take every coin ever struck by a die, theoretically you would be able to line them up from the very first strike to the very last, just by examining the wear on the die.

Luckily, other things sometimes happen which give us a clue. Sometimes the dies come together without a planchet in the coining chamber, in which case the dies will transfer some of their design to the other die. This is known as a die clash. Sometimes, mint workers will polish or lap the dies, leaving polish lines all over the surface of the die. Mint workers often do this when there is evidence of a clash. Sometimes, the die will begin to crack, even breaking off in places if the cracks get bad enough. Other things such as gouges and rust also occur to the dies. Each of these occurrences is unique, and just like your favorite cops on CSI use a fingerprint to identify the culprit, these die markers identify the die. Other things, such as doubled dies, repunched mintmarks, and hand placement of letters, numbers and devices on early coins also serve as unique die identifiers. As the die continues through its life, these things happen and change, and we can “watch” the progress of the life of a die through these die sates.


(An incredibly popular die clash known as the “Bugs Bunny Franklin”)

The die state is important because earlier strikes will be sharper, crisper, and have more details (sometimes, through an error in the die-making process, even the prime state of the die will have cracks). Remember, as the die wears, details become softened and eliminated. For a doubled die specialist, the early die states are very important because in later die states the doubling may be harder to see. The die can still be identified through the use of the unique die markers, however.

Those who study die states generally break the life of the die into three main categories – early die state (EDS), mid die state (MDS), and late die state (LDS). There are of course intermediate stages; often when a new die crack or clash appears, a new die state is labeled. Another naming scheme is to assign a small letter to subsequent die states, such that the prime state is ‘a’, the next state is ‘b’, and so on. Other collectors use Roman numerals for successive die states, particularly collectors of half cents and large cents following Breen’s books. You can see the convenience this poses for a well studied die with numerous die states described.

Collectors use the die state of dies to determine an emission sequence – which order the dies were used in. This is important in series which are collected by die marriage – or a pairing of obverse and reverse die. Say Obverse Die #1 is initially paired with Reverse Die A, but sometime during the striking, Reverse Die A cracks and is replaced with Reverse Die B. Later, Obverse Die #1 completely disintegrates because it was improperly heat treated, or the steel was bad. Obverse Die #2 replaces it.

Now, imagine its 150 years later and some numismatist has three coins struck during this run, one from each die marriage. The first pairing, call it O-101, is from both fresh, new dies. After Reverse A cracks and is replaced by B, you have a new die marriage – O-102. When Obverse #1 shatters, the new marriage is O-103. But the first obverse die was used for the first two marriages, and the reverse die overlaps the last two marriages. By examining the die state, the careful numismatist can determine this sequence, and piece together what happened. It is the die state that lets us know the order was 101, 102, 103, and not the other way around – 103, 102, 101.



(Bust Half Dollars are widely studied by die marriage and die state)

You might say so what? But to some numismatists, this sequence is very interesting. In some cases, there is quite a bit of mystery and intrigue associated with this. For example, certain varieties of the 1795 half dime were actually struck before the 1794 dated half dime! How do we know this? Through a careful examination of the die states, of course.

The die state is also important to some error collectors. As the die strikes coins, sometimes it will crack. Sometimes, these cracks will grow and progress, until pieces of the die break off. Some collectors like to get multiple examples of these cracks, and watch how the crack grew until the terminal die state. Some terminal die state coins can be magnificent – numerous cracks spider web the die, with pieces of the die missing (known as die breaks, or if it is at the edge it is called a cud).

It is important for collectors of modern coins to be aware of certain marketing schemes by the TPGs. They will label new issues, under certain circumstances, as “Early Release” (NGC) or “First Strike” (PCGS). These are incredibly deceptive, especially the PCGS designation, because they seem to imply that the coins so labeled are actually struck from an Early Die State. Remember, an early die state is not worn, and will produce crisper, sharper coins. True first strikes will thus often be nicer coins. However, these labels are issued for any coin submitted within the cutoff period – which means that the coins could actually be from LDS dies. This is why the premium for “First Strike” coins is misleading – it means absolutely nothing in terms of the quality of the coin.

So, how do you determine what die state your coin is, if you feel so inclined? Take a good look at the coin. Notice how sharp and crisp the elements are. Notice if there are die clashes, or cracks, or breaks, or cuds. Notice if there are polish lines, or if the elements look worn out and distorted. Let’s look at a few coins together to try and distinguish their die states. First up is a very early die state on this 1941D Wheat cent. Notice how sharp and crisp all the design elements are, and how there is a complete lack of clashes or polish lines.




For the average MDS coin, there isn’t really much distinguishing it. It doesn’t have the sharp, crisp look of the EDS, and it doesn’t have the worn, distorted look of an LDS coin. MDS coins show a little of the wear of life, some things may have happened to them, but they still have a ways to go. Many of the coins in your collection will be MDS coins, such as this 1961 Franklin half showing a good bit of die polish lines (especially below the bell, and around the eagle).



Contrast this now with a late die state 1953S. Notice how distorted all the elements seem – how they look tired, for lack of a better word. Also look at the rough texture of the fields. This is what we call an “orange peel” effect, for the characteristic look. Numismatists use the term orange peel in two very different ways to refer to two very different effects (the other one is most commonly seen on 19th century proof gold).



A couple other late die state coins can help show the difference. This is a very late die state Jefferson nickel, a coin we are all familiar with. On this one, look how all the elements are distorted and enlarged. This is an effect called Die Deterioration Doubling, and occurs when coins are struck from very worn dies – dies near the end of their life.



The final coin I will use to illustrate a late die state will be this 1812 Capped Bust Half. This coin was struck from very well worn dies, and shows the worn and enlarged elements. Note how the stars are all drawn out to the edge, looking like caricatures of themselves. As on the Jefferson nickel above, note how many of the details appear soft and worn out, especially the date. This coin was struck from a die late in its life.



In many ways, the extremely late die state coins are more fun than earlier die states. There are some very dedicated collectors who specialize in terminal die state coins – finding the very last coins that a die struck. These coins will often have severe die breaks, cuds, and all manner of interesting defects before the die finally disintegrated or was retired from service.

Well, I hope that helps you understand die states and why they are important to numismatics. For another example, take a look at this write-up on the Harry Bass Foundation webpage. Harry Bass was one of the most famous collectors of gold coinage, and he studied die states extensively. Harry Bass webpage

Jason Poe
aka physics-fan3.14

 

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Very well thought out informative post. I'm sure this will help many folks out in understanding the topic.

 

Awesome job Jason!!

 

I think you hit a home-run with this one. Great job! I feel smarter.:hail:

 

Thanks guys. I love doing these, so if you have something you want me to talk about, let me know.

 

Nice. Great info and examples used.

Bruce

 

Very nicely done. You've put it in a way that makes sense even to novice collectors.

 

Here is a very nice photo of the progression of the 1804 C-6 half cent from a very early state through to the terminal state. It doesn't show all of the steps (because I believe some of the changes occur on the obverse) but it shows 17 steps in the life of the reverse die. This is a 4MB photo and you may have to click on it to see the full size image wich will let you see the changes between steps.

http://gynandroidhead.com/Halfcentvarieties/1804C6diestates.jpg

 

Informative post, metal under the pressures of coining can have some interesting reactions, a planchet is uniformly a certain thickness, but that uniform thickness does have some variance, I think that sometimes what is called a weak strike or a worn die sometimes can be a thinner planchet.
Plus most of our coinage are alloys, mixtures of metals, these metals sometimes are not as uniformly mixed as advertised.

 

I was going to ask about the so-called "first strike" coins in the other post, Jason, if those were all from the early dies. That is kind of the implication, you're right. Thanks for clearing that up. Kudos again all around on this one, for sure. :high5:

 

Just from personal experience, one product that I make is an aluminum alloy that supposedly contains a certain amount of different metals, we will sometimes have an assortment of odds and ends that when forming will show different qualities, when forming a 64 inch radius, I can usually get pretty close by "petting" the metal as if it were an affectionate cat, sometimes this "petting" will match a template really close, sometimes it will be over sometimes under.

Even when using machines and computor controls the metal (even if the nominal thickness is uniform) will react differently, I do not assay the metal, but I ascribe the variances to variances in the alloy.
Then there is the environment, I have worked with materials that have tolerances in the millionths of an inch, that must be produced in a temperature controlled environment.
After all this, even the most lustruos proof coin if looked at with enough magnification will look more cratered and pockmarked than the moon, (one of the reasons I scoff at ms-70 gradings)
Another variable could be the press itself, especially if a press is hydraulic the fluids tend to be sensitive to heat, a press first turned on tends to follow a pattern that seems to me to be up to 8 thousandths deeper at first, and seems to (after the fluids are warmed) become almost cyclical, with coining the results might be almost invisible, but there still are differences.

 

Thanks Conder for that link. That is a GREAT example of what I'm talking about - makes the progression of die states very clear.

 

Great post! I recently picked up a box of cents at the bank and they turned out to be a box brought in by a collector from his collection. The only really interesting thing in the box was three rolls of marked 1982P cents. About a 1/4 of them are nice red uncirculated coins. Most of them are very late stage with die cracks and polish lines all over them. I cannot wait to inspect the different cracks under a scope. It will be interesting to see if I can identify any changes of dies.

 

Some die cracks prgress very quickly. Its cool to get a roll with ten or a dozen coins with the same die crack and watch its progress. I once got a roll of state quarters (Michigan I think?) where about halfway through the roll I noticed a small die crack on the tip of Washington's bust. After I finished looking through the roll, I had about 7 of this die crack, from the very tiniest crack to one where the crack went all the way across teh bottom of his bust. I thought it was cool!

 

re: "The die state is important because earlier strikes will be sharper, crisper, and have more details (sometimes, through an error in the die-making process, even the prime state of the die will have cracks)."

It's always interesting to find ultra-low mintage coins with die cracks. For example, I've seen patterns with die cracks. These coins have mintages less than 100 and yet the dies have already cracked.

Also, consider the 1833 1/2c proofs, mintage estimated at 25 to 50. The obverse die has cracks.

 

Stresses induced in the die body during the hardening process can cause the die to possibly crack as soon as it is put into use or to even crack during the hardening.

 

Yes, I remember a thread about whether proofs ever have cracks, and someone posted a proof shield nickel that had them. This is a very interesting thread, thanks to the o.p.!

 

Great post, very informative, nominated for TOTW.

 

Great post, enjoyed it very much, I have not seen a conclusion dies written any greater than your detailed presentation. thanks, Sam

 

Jason, I was reading your informative book this afternoon, which lead me to this old post...so, are you of the opinion that you can actually see a die deterioration in a single roll of coins? Your book is GREAT!