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Processes introduction:
Coining
Coining is a form of
precision stamping in which a workpiece is subjected to a sufficiently high
stress to induce plastic flow on the surface of the material. A beneficial
feature is that in some metals, the plastic flow reduces surface grains
size, work hardening the surface, while the material deeper in the part
retains its toughness and ductility.
Coining is used to produce money (coins), medals, police and fire fighter's
badges, buttons, precision-energy springs and precision parts with small or
polished surface features.
Coining as a manufacturing process
Coining is a cold working process (similar to forging which takes place at
elevated temperature) that uses a great deal of force to plastically deform
a workpiece, so it conforms to a die. Coining can be done using a gear
driven press, a mechanical press, or more commonly, a hydraulically actuated
press. Coining typically requires higher tonnage presses than stamping,
because the workpiece is plastically deformed and not actually cut, as in
stamping.
Coining is used to manufacture parts for all industries and is commonly used
when high relief or very fine features are required.
Coining tools for currency
A coin die is one of the two metallic pieces that are used to strike one
side of a coin. A die contains an inverse version of the image to be struck
on the coin. To imagine what the incuse version looks like, press a coin
into clay or wax and look at the resulting inverted image. Modern dies made
out of hardened steel are capable of producing many hundreds of thousands of
coins before they are retired and defaced.
Modern die production
The process of making dies to strike coins in today's mint has quite a few
steps. First, an artist creates a large plaster model of the coin. The
plaster model is then coated with rubber. The rubber mold is then used to
make an epoxy galvano. All of this takes place on a scale of around eight
inches. Next, a Janvier reducing lathe takes several days to reduce the
image onto a steel master hub in a process that has not changed in over a
hundred years. The master hub is then tempered to make it hard. A small
number of master dies (incuse) are then made from the master hub. These are
then used to make working hubs. The working hubs are then used to make
working dies. With each step, the number goes up. The working dies are then
used to strike coins. All dies are incuse, and all hubs look like the coin
being struck (with the devices raised.)
The final step is that the dies are used to strike images onto the planchet
so that it becomes a coin.
Mistakes can happen at any stage of this manufacturing process, and these
mistakes are something that certain collectors look for. Coin errors that
occur on the die are generally more desirable than errors made at the time
of the strike. For example, a doubled die, where a date or another device
appears twice slightly offset, is often a highly desired error. Strike
errors are generally unique, whereas all coins struck with an error die will
have the same characteristic. This makes them more easily collectible. The
most famous doubled die in the past hundred years is the 1955 doubled die
Lincoln cent. These trade for hundreds of dollars because the error can
easily be seen by a casual observer. Many doubled die errors require at
least a jeweler's loupe (if not a healthy imagination) to be seen. Doubling
can occur at the hub stage as well. Some more recent errors are hub doubled.
Most famously, there is a 1995 doubled die cent that is hub doubled.
Since coin production in the United States has exceeded 20 billion coins in
some recent years, this means that a lot of dies must be manufactured as
well.
Stamping parts