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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Insider, post: 2487071, member: 24314&quot;]Intereting question that SHOULD BE common knowledge I should think but apparently not if you cannot find it.&nbsp; Burdette, Lange, Margolis, Julian, Bressett are all alive and there are some old books about the Mint that may contain info. Ask them if you see them at shows.</p><p><br /></p><p>Using digital photography, it should be very easy for an advanced collector of Large cents or numismatic researcher to compare the EXACT orientation of the level (I&#039;m beginning to write like SD <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie12" alt="o_O" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />) of the top and bottom of the digits to determine that either the first two or three digits line up perfectly while either the last one or two are slightly off register proving they were added to the gang punched numbers already into the die. </p><p><br /></p><p>So, AFAIK, and this ONLY until we all find out for sure:</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ll bet they never had a punch for the entire date. Furthermore, I&#039;ll bet the number of digits in the gang punch may have changed over the decades due to the way die making changed. I believe the date digits for our coins were first put into the die one at a time.&nbsp; Next they moved to a two digit punch but even a three digit punch would make sense as the punch would be good for ten years.&nbsp; The 1851/81 indicates the &quot;18&quot; was gang punched into the die.&nbsp; Since there is an 1844/81 variety we may be able to assume that during this time period a &quot;18&quot; punch was being used. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now, forget what I have written and let&#039;s all see if we can find the actual truth!</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #b30000">EDIT</span>: I could not find the answer in <i>From Mine to Mint</i> just now.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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