"An End of a primitive Era"...

Greetings Collectors,

As most of you know, my free time of late has revolved around an attempt to take & post pictures of my coins here at the Collectors Society. The joy and frustrations have been many and while I have taken well over two thousand shots, less than 100 have been deemed "worthy" enough to include here. Spending a great deal of time with many of my most favorite coins has made me think more "in depth" of exactly what goes into the "making of a coin" proof or business strike. I have a greater degree of apreciation and utter awe when I dwell on the process of the "bringing about" a particular coin design, the labor of the "engraver", the manufacturing of the dies, the actual "striking" of the coin and right up to the final process of storage/packaging/& shipping of the product, be it to the various banks, distributors and collectors. In this final post pertaining to earlier "proof coinage" and I say this because there is very little difference between proof coinage of this era in question and the proof coinage of earlier, as in the mid to late 1800's. The only real difference is the quantity of total coins struck. As I have mentioned in eariler posts on this subject, big changes only took place starting in the late 1970's and continue to improve, quality wise, to what we see today.

In this post I want to just touch on the maintenance and operation of the presses and the packaging of the "finished product". I have discussed how "craftsmen" and the "human element" played a major role in what the "finished product" ie, "The Coin" ended up looking like. There are so many things that contributed to the coin either looking very good or very bad. Modern technology has greatly reduced the chance of "human error".

It was the "press operators" job to inspect and maintain nearly every aspect of the coining process once the planchets were burnished. First, he would inspect each and every one, wash each with "soap and water" and would then "towel dry" afterwards. This was done to remove any dirt, grease or grime which if left, would end up on the surface of the finished proof coin, not to mention, possibly damage the delicate surfaces of the die itself. As with most anything involving man, one or more of these steps were not performed as well as one would like to think. Silver proof issues are notorious for having white spots, commonly refered to as "milk spots". The reason being, the planchets were not rinsed properly after the "washing" and/or not dried well after their soap bath. If the "spotting" was not removed before the planchets were struck, then these milk spots became part of the coin and are impossible to remove without damaging the surface of the coin. Today the proof planchets are still washed but are also dipped in an additional bath of "acid" to eliminate the chance of "spotting".

Oil was applied to the planchets on "business strikes" to prolong "die life" and had to be cleaned from time to time from the die. This oily buildup would not bode well with proof dies and would actually decrease die life so to maintain these dies, the press operator would hand clean each die after only as little as 20 coins were struck. This hand cleaning was done using alcohol and cotton. If this cleaning was not performed as often as it should, the "die wear" would progress as a faster pace. Often being downright lazy would play into the picture and this, coupled with less frequent cleaning, cotton strands/fibers would remain on the surface of the die and then be transfered to the coins surface when the die struck the planchet. Sometimes the threads were small and virtually invisible, while at other times the strands were large, leaving a "knotty" impression on the proof surface of the "freshly struck" coin. The mint has taken care of this problem by substituting "lint free" felt cloths in leau of the cotton when the periodic die cleaning takes place.

In the press, the reverse die was on the bottom facing up while it was the exact opposite for the obverse die. Being able to see the reverse die easier and with this positioning, it was also easier to clean/maintain. This caused the reverse die to get special treatment, thus prolonging its life. Dies were only replaced after they were well worn, so many times a coin was struck with a new obverse or reverse die while the other die remained for more "strikings". This is why you have different degrees of "cameo and deep cameo" effects on the same coin. Again all of the above depended on the degree of diligence and pride within the "work ethic" of the "press operator.

"Strike pressure" played a major role in the life of the dies. Cents then as well as today required less pressure and half dollars more pressure. 30 tons and 160 tons respectivly. The frosted cameo devices of a proof die were the most delicate areas, and thus were the first to wear from the "multiple strikes".

Repolishing the dies was a laborious task and very detailed as to the when, why, & how so for the sake of not wanting to bore you all any more minute info than I have already, "detail wise", I will keep this short and sweet and to the point. When proof coinage resumed in 1950 after an eight year break this particular aspect of proof coinage (die polishing) maybe suffered the most. In the last year of "proof sets" in 1942, 21,120 were coined. In 1950 the mint was required to produce over 51,000. This may seem minicule by todays standards but these guys "in the old days" were "slammed" and this was a very "tall order" to fill. Dies needed repolishing often to maintain the proof effect. And once again, the human element played a major role. Dies were not polished as much as they needed to be or not at all. A reverse die was done and not the obverse. Once the die was "tuckered out", it was kept in service even longer. Many many things went into why there are so few quality cameo proof coins from this period. There were even some coins that didn't look proof at all. There were so many labor intensive processes that were not performed consistantly or even at all, the more I read about this subject, it's a wonder we have any "deep/ultra cameos" at all. I plan to do a post in the future concerning the aspects of how the dies were "re-polished" and why the way this was done had "EVERYTHING" to do with how many cameo/deep cameo coins were produced. Those of you who love older proof coinage will appreciate the details surrounding all the facts that contribute to all of us having so very few choice proof coins from this 1950's era.

Finally a quick "touch" on the subject of packaging these older proof coins. Wow, it almost seems to me that all of these coins were doomed from the start all the way through each and every process, and right up to the finish.

When the mint resumed proof coinage in 1950, the same packaging was used as was in the 1936-1942 time period. Each coin was enclosed in a separate brittle mylar envelope which all were stapled together and then put into a small cardboard box surrounded by tissue paper. The box was then sealed with paper tape.This went on from 1950 to the middle part of 1954. Several problems arose from this type of packaging. First of all, the brittle envelopes would crack open thus allowing the coins to "slip out" and rub and bang against one another. The staple would always rust so you had small specks of rust rubbing between the coins. Then there was the glue used to seal each indivigual