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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;messydesk, post: 3179320, member: 1765&quot;]In this case, the third left star, with the extra break on it.&nbsp; In general, a simple die crack may be sufficient to identify a die, but a die break can define the variety.</p><p><br /></p><p>Generally, this is not tracked the same way, simply because there are so many circumstances where we just don&#039;t know the pairings a die was involved in.&nbsp; For some dates, however, we do know this.&nbsp; 1878 has been closely studied long enough that we can follow every die through all its pairings, for example.&nbsp; There are a few others as well.&nbsp; Even in this case, the emphasis is on the die marriage rather than the die itself.</p><p><br /></p><p>Die state and die stage are often confused with each other, but they are not interchangeable.&nbsp; It doesn&#039;t help that &quot;stage&quot; and &quot;state&quot; only differ by one non-initial letter.</p><p><br /></p><p>Die state refers strictly to the state of wear of the die.&nbsp; Early is a new, fresh die, late is an old, worn die.&nbsp; Die stage refers to the progression of some visual feature.&nbsp; Often, early die stages and early die states imply each other, but this is not always true, especially if one die in a pairing has been replaced.</p><p><br /></p><p>The easiest demonstration of die stage for Morgan dollars is with the 1888-O VAM 1B &quot;Scarface.&quot;&nbsp; The progression of the die break across the obverse has been split up into 11 different stages, from no crack at all to the dramatic crack that goes from the rim at 10:00 through Liberty&#039;s hair.&nbsp; The amount of deterioration on the obverse die is such that the die state follows the die stage in this case.&nbsp; The reverse die tells a different story, however.&nbsp; The earliest die stage is also an early die state, but the latest die stage is not really a late die state of the reverse.&nbsp; This reverse could have been used in another marriage later, in which case the early die stage of that marriage would have a middle die state reverse.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another thing about die stages is that they usually refer to the die marriage, while the die states refer to the individual dies.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you look at CONECA&#039;s listings, they also note the die states observed for a die pair of a variety they&#039;ve cataloged.&nbsp; In many cases you&#039;ll see notations when the die opposite the feature of interest has been replaced.&nbsp; This is where you&#039;ll also see stuff like &quot;Obverse is LDS, reverse is EDS.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Neither Breen nor Noyes differentiate between a die state and die stage, but this is likely due to the fact that the coins aren&#039;t seen in quantity in high grade, which is what would be needed to treat the two terms differently.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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