Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="Hobo, post: 542743, member: 11521"]Sorry, Ziggy. I didn't mean to beat up on ya. I just thought it would be confusing to anyone reading it with the typo, especially someone who is not familiar with die doubling.  To carry Ziggy's thought a bit further - - - Starting around 1990 (different years for different denominations) the Mint ended the practice of adding mintmarks to working dies and added the mintmark to the Master Hub. What does that mean?  The Master Hub is an exact positive image of the coin. It is pressed into a blank die to create a Master Die (a negative image of the coin). The Master Die is used to create Working Hubs (positive image) which are in turn used to make Working Dies (negative image). The Working Dies are used to strike coins.  By adding the mintmark to the Master Hub the Mint no longer has to add mintmarks to Working Dies because the mintmark is present on the Master Hub, Master Dies, Working Hubs and Working Dies.  What does this have to do with doubled dies? A LOT. When mintmarks were added to Working Dies by hand you could have a Doubled Die (created by slight misalignment between squeezes during the hubbing process) and a mintmark that is not doubled. This is because the mintmark was added to the die AFTER the die doubling had occurred.  Today, because the mintmark is a part of the Working Hub, if a Working Die is doubled the mintmark will also be doubled.  Hope this makes sense.[/QUOTE]