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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 2855688, member: 66&quot;]The dies are annealed to soften them for the hubbing.&nbsp; In the case of the multiple squeeze hubbing the die would again be annealed between hubbings because the hubbing &quot;work hardens&quot; the die.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once the die hubbing is finished the die is hardened.&nbsp; This results in an oxidation layer on the die faces which is cleaned off and the die is polished/ground (basined) to the proper curvature.&nbsp; The heating/hardening process can result in warping or unevenness in the die faces.&nbsp; The basining results in smooth faces and the proper curvature needed to make the striking more efficient.</p><p><br /></p><p>If the dies clash or there is another problem the clash is either removed by further polishing/basining if it is mild, or by what the mint refers to as &quot;stoning&quot; where the fields are &quot;scrubbed&quot; with a emery stick with a coarser grade of abbrasive.&nbsp; In both cases this is done without annealing the hardened die</p><p><br /></p><p>As a general rule you do not anneal and reharden a used die.&nbsp; Hardening the die is the step where it is most likely to fail so if you have one that has survived it once you don&#039;t risk it again.&nbsp; Also the use of the die introduces internal stresses that make it even more likely to fail if it is rehardened and annealed.&nbsp; This was especially true in the early years of the mint when the quality of the steel was variable/suspect, and when exact temperatures of the heating of the steel could not be determined accurately[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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