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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;JohnT, post: 1615840, member: 38624&quot;]According to the book &quot;Strike It Rich with Pocket Change&quot;:</p><p>Up until 1990, all mintmarks were punched into otherwise completed regular coinage dies individually with a hand punch and mallet. This process allowed for variations in the placement of the mintmark, variations in its strength, and sometimes whether it went into the die at an angle or perfectly flush with the field, or titled clockwise or counterclockwise. It often required several taps of the mallet to sufficiently sink the mintmark into a die. At times, a punch appears to have been angled too far in one direction, creating weakness at one side and strength at the other. This was compensated with a correction that angled later taps of the punch in the direction of weakness. Other times, the engraver probably examined his work and decided it needed strengthening and thus set the punch back down for another blow. Still other times, a first impression of a mintmark was up too high, encroaching into the date, or far too low, or perhaps even rotated at an unacceptable angle that could be as severe as 180 degrees (resulting in an inverted mintmark)! These factors, and plain old-fashioned “punch bounce,” are all conditions that are known to have caused RPMs. The diagnostics of RPMs, (and other forms of repunching not covered in this book), are identical to that of doubled dies; there will be separation lines between overlapping images and lots of total separation in the form of “split serifs.”</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>Potter, Ken; Allen, Brian (2011-02-28). Strike It Rich with Pocket Change (p. 27). F+W Media, Inc.. Kindle Edition. </i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I thought manual punching ended in the 80&#039;s... but I&#039;m just a newb and don&#039;t know nothin&#039; no how. Hope this was useful![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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