As I understand it, mechanical doubling is a quick succession strike. I'm not familiar with how the MM were struck by "hand" in the past and I'm curious how the md occurs when mint marks were still being manually punched on the coin. Someone correct me if I'm not using the right terminologies please. Thanks!
I can't think of any examples where a mint mark was hand punched on individual coins. On the dies yes, but coins? Seems impractical.
The MM was punched into the working die. Often two or more strikes were required and this resulted in an RPM (Re Punched Mintmark) if the strikes were not aligned. The die was then used to strike coins, and if the die hit the coin after the strike due to looseness in the machine, it could cause MD. The MD can show on some or all design elements, including the MM.
THANK YOU! I feel dumb how I worded my question lol. I know people didn't individually hand punched the MM on every coin..just couldn't wrap my head around the whole process. Thanks again!