Does the mint destroy all the die's after they mint all the coins for a certain year? If not (or if so, and one was found not destroyed years later), if they were to get an original half dollar die from 1937 and minted some coins with it in the same 90% silver, would they be considered genuine 1937 coins even though they were made today? I know, dumb question. lol
The mint defaces all dies (at least nowadays). In the past, there have been re-strikes made years after the original issue however, you must go back about 200 years. You can legally buy used (defaced) dies. If a person were to have a working die or pair of dies in their posession you can bet that the Treasury Dept. would be on them like a pit bull on a T-bone steak. If the mint were to uncover a pair of working dies and put them into production with the original alloy, they would be considered re-strikes. If someone outside the mint were to do this, they'd probably find themselves staying at the Gray Bar Hotel as this would be considered counterfieting.
While they aren't exactly common, intact dies for older coins do exist. They are also very expensive collector items often sold for many thousands of dollars. I've never personally seen an intact die for US coins from the 1900's but I have heard of a couple over the years. And I've seen 3 from the late 1800's.
Didn't the Mint use to offer defaced dies for sale on their website? I seem to recall seeing them listed years ago.
Yes, they still do to the best of my knowledge. They used to cancel the die by cutting a large X from rim to rim. Then they began grinding the face of the die completely off. But what I was talking about are dies that were completely normal, original. No defacing or cancelation at all.
Most of the early scrap dies were only disposed of, decades after use or design change. Used dies were supposedly stored under less than good conditions and usually had severe rust or physical damage before selling. But it was state of the art steel at the time. This would raise questions if used to strike coins.
