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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ClairHardesty, post: 1304947, member: 34169&quot;]It is my understanding that SF had almost one million bullion strikes in stock around the time they started putting these sets together but even so, it is my best guess that they either used only those, or if there weren&#039;t actually 100,000 then they they probably wouldn&#039;t used any and would have struck fresh for use in the sets. I didn&#039;t mean to imply that SF die came out of WP, just that all die come out of a single source, more likely Philly or a distinct die center. Anyway the real point is that the likelihood of any special sort of die being used for the bullion coins is extremely slim. If anything out of the ordinary happened (which assumes that a special run was made), the most likely things are that either burnished planchets were used for bullion strikes (which really doesn&#039;t have a huge effect on the finish on the coin but does make for more consistent, less flawed coins) or the bullion coins were struck at the uncirculated force setting, or possibly both. I really do want to stress that the burnished finish on the uncirculated planchets does not carry through to the coin finish. The strike forces obliterate that finish and impart the die surface in opposite to the coin. What the burnishing does is minimize and planchet flaws that might survive the striking process. It is similar to the high polishing done to proof planchets, that isn&#039;t what creates the mirror on the coin, it only improves it by starting with a surface that closely resembles that of the die. The burnishing or polishing also extends die life a little because the planchets aren&#039;t as likely to cause die wear via defects hitting the die and wearing it down. </p><p><br /></p><p>So, I don&#039;t think that we are going to find any die varieties that are unique to SF, or if there are any they are unique to one or a very small number of die sets and not the entire 100,000 coins. If that is the case, there are every bit as likely to be die varieties at WP (proof, unc, bullion) P (RP), and SF (unc, bullion). I don&#039;t think there is a physical common ancestor in the die family tree for the proof / reverse proof / uncirculated / bullion die but I don&#039;t know for sure, it is possible. I do think that if a dedicated run of bullion strikes was done for the 25th sets that it is possible that burnished planchets were used or that the strike force was set at uncirculated levels. My personal opinion is that what we are seeing is simply normal bullion production variation, that nothing special was done, and that even if a dedicated production run occurred for the bullion coins that it was done on standard planchets and on production presses set at standard bullion forces. Even entire the 100,000 coin sample size of the 25th sets is small by bullion coin standards, accounting for only a single average day of production. I also think that what we are seeing as possible die varieties is normal die variation, not enough to be deemed true die varieties. All my opinion, no better than anyone else&#039;s at this point.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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