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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 846004, member: 112&quot;]The articles that Jim linked to don&#039;t really explain much about making the dies other than to say they were carved. But it was a very lengthy and painstaking process. And only the most skilled craftsmen could do it. Anyone else that even attempted it could be, and often was, punished with death.</p><p><br /></p><p>At first all of the dies were carved completely by hand. It could take a skilled die sinker a month to make just 1 set of dies. If you consider the size of the dies and the intricacy of the detail, and the crude tools they had to work with, it is easy to see why.</p><p><br /></p><p>But as time passed innovative die sinkers began to get smart and they developed punches. Punches could be used to make many dies in a short time. And there were many different kinds of punches. Some had entire sections of a design, like the outline of a bust, while others had only tiny pieces like pellets or stops. So all they had to do was strike the die blank with their punches to create the design instead of meticulously carving each one.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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