die cracks

[hami 1]

having studied lots of ebay images of young head vic halfs and pennies an amazing number seem to have been minted from cracked dies. they are all in very good grades mostly. how are they still around ? were they rejected and stored somewhere and so survive ?

Did they ever reach circulation ? Any comments or other info ? Book references ? Thanks.

[Rob 3,152]

Die cracks are a natural result of a fatigued die. A die is a tool which is used until it is no longer fit for purpose. A cracked die will be used until it physically falls apart and then it will be replaced with a new one and so the cycle goes on.

Coins struck from cracked dies will be treated no differently to those from defect free dies because they will still pass as legal tender.

[1949threepence 3,367]

having studied lots of ebay images of young head vic halfs and pennies an amazing number seem to have been minted from cracked dies. they are all in very good grades mostly. how are they still around ? were they rejected and stored somewhere and so survive ?

Did they ever reach circulation ? Any comments or other info ? Book references ? Thanks.

I'd say that almost all of them will have reached circulation. There was no quality control in the sense of an inspector carefully sifting each item for the odd die crack. As Rob says, die cracks occurred as a result of damaged dies. Coins in the tens of thousands, or more, may have been minted from one cracked die, leading to the same die crack mark on all of them. They will all have subsequently been distributed to the banks for circulation.

That's why there are so many pennies, for example, still about with die cracks present.