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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 2681121, member: 66&quot;]Back in the days when the dies were made by hand, the die sinker would use a compass to lightly scribe a base line arc on the die to assist in the punching in of the lettering.&nbsp; the point of the compass in the center of the die would leave an indentation, this is the &quot;center dot&quot;.&nbsp; Sometimes on high grade early die state coin the base line scribe can still be seen between the letters at the base.&nbsp; Some times they would also put a scribe line to indicate where the top of the letters would be as well.&nbsp; The idea being to punch the letters in inbetween the line to to keep them even.&nbsp; Center dots can be seen on a great many early coins if you look for them.&nbsp; One of the easiest places to see them is on the reverses of the lage cent where they are out in the field between the words ONE CENT.</p><p><br /></p><p>For example on this 17 N-1</p><p><img src="http://64.60.141.195/photos/59jpegs/158384N2.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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