Life of modern dies.

[RWB]

Quite a while ago, someone on one of the forums asked how many coins were struck from modern dies. I posted some info on cent and nickel dies from 1909, but had nothing on more modern dies. The following data were located by chance. Although these numbers are 30 years old, they may still be relevant to specialists of various series, particularly Ike dollars.

 

Average die life as reported for April 1974, Philadelphia Mint.

 

Cent obv 554,832

Cent rev 485,777

Nickel obv 215,545

Nickel rev 165,042

Dime obv 125,566

Dime rev 207,694

Quart obv 256,080

Quart rev 294,250

Half obv 263,260

Half rev 278,459

Dol obv 256,128

Dol rev 63,988

 

I found numerous mention of this type of list in modern files, but this was the only example I could locate.

 

[cpm9ball]

It's interesting to note that the obverse die life is greater for the cent, nickel and dollar, but it is surprising to learn that the dollar obverse lasts four times longer than the reverse. I wonder why?

 

Chris

[jesbroken]

Note also, Chris, the dime and quarter rev's are extremely higher than the obv strikes-the opposite of the other coins. Makes for interesting perusing. Thanks Roger for the info.

[cpm9ball]

Note also, Chris, the dime and quarter rev's are extremely higher than the obv strikes-the opposite of the other coins. Makes for interesting perusing. Thanks Roger for the info.

 

Yes, they are about 25% higher, but the dollar is more than 400% higher.

 

Chris

[AegisIII]

I have to wonder, is there any measure of variance for the lifetimes? I'm just not really sure how to interpret them.

[RWB]

The data are from only one month, at one mint. Unfortunately, this was the only list I found, although there were several cover letters w/o the lists.

[DC Dawg]

It's interesting to note that the obverse die life is greater for the cent, nickel and dollar, but it is surprising to learn that the dollar obverse lasts four times longer than the reverse. I wonder why?

Based on already published materials, the reverse of the Ike dollar was a difficult one to strike and have the details show properly. There was a nice article about this in a recent issue of The Numismatist in discussing the 1972 die varieties.

 

Scott

[Conder101]

[q]It's interesting to note that the obverse die life is greater for the cent, nickel and dollar, but it is surprising to learn that the dollar obverse lasts four times longer than the reverse. I wonder why?[/q]

Probably a typo. It should probably read 263,988

[RWB]

The original document says "Corrected" at the top.

[RWB]

I checked the original memorandum. It says 17 reverse dies were used to strike 1,087,800 coins for an average of 63,988.24 coins per die for April 1974.