Fake 1817?

Hand punching lasted until the early 1830's. The additional power provided by the steam presses allowed the mint to then do hubbing of the complete die that included everything except the date. Master dies were still created for a short period after that by hand punching, but once the reducing lathes came into use they began creating enlarged models and using the reducing lathe to create master hubs.

They did do some experiments in the early years trying to create entire dies by hubbing, but there was not sufficient power available and the resulting dies still needed hand finishing and corrections to weak portions. The most extensive trial of whole die hubbing was on the reverse of the draped bust large cents. About half of the rev dies for 1798, the 1799's, and all of the 1800 reverse dies were created from the same master hub. after hubbing certain small features would be added or strengthened, the wreath stems, berries berry and leaf stems etc. This is why attribution late 1798 and 1800 cents is so difficult, especially in low grade.

 

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@ Conder101,

Where did you find this figure? I looked everywhere.

"Now there is no specified tolerance for the cents of this era, but I would make the assumption (I know that is a risk) that it would be similar to the official tolerance when they did start specifying it in 1837. That tolerance was +/- .454 grams. "

 

Coin World Almanac 1990 edition

They don't list a tolerance for the 1793 -95 or the 1795 - 1836 but for 1837 to 57 they list .454 grams.

I suppose I should not say "official tolerance" as the Act of Jan 18, 1837 does not specify a tolerance for the copper coins.

 

I wonder where Coin World dug that number up.

 

Great information, Conder.