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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 2987747, member: 66&quot;]If you mean are cuds common, no not really, but a lot more common than they are on modern coins.&nbsp; Steel quality and forging was more hit and mis back then.&nbsp; If you mean on the 1811 half cent...The 1811 is a scarce date in half cents and this variety comes in five different die stages, Stage I perfect die with no cracks, scarce.&nbsp; Stage II with rim to rim crack through the first four stars, very rare.&nbsp; Stage III with crack from rim to star 2, very rare.&nbsp; Stage IV two star cud at stars 1&amp;2, extremely rare.&nbsp; Stage V with the four star break shown on the earlier example, rare.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>In his case probably no background check.&nbsp; The early mint was almost a &quot;family affair&quot; with several of the officers related to each other, and employment being passed from family member to family member.&nbsp; Their were members of the Eckfeldt family at the mint from the beginning to around the 1880&#039;s.&nbsp; Theodore was an Eckfeldt, so he was hired.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Not the dies, but the hub used to make the 1856 dies.&nbsp; The hub contained all the details except the date.&nbsp; So the early 1857 dies were made with the 1856 hub, then they made modifications and a new hub which they used for the rest of the 1857 dies.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>To a large extent it was just a matter of not having anything else.&nbsp; Coins were in short supply and anything of the right size tended to be used including tokens, medals, and even buttons.&nbsp; If you don&#039;t have any other choice you&#039;ll take it.&nbsp; Kind of like during the 1974 cent shortage&nbsp; people accepted pieces of candy instead of cents.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>No, the 1851 and 51 O trimes were 750 fine silver.&nbsp; The fineness wasn&#039;t raised to 90% silver until the type II trimes in 1854.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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