1997 Die question?????

[ldarrellc]

In 1997 didnt they use the same dies to make the P lincoln cent as they did the Denver Lincoln cent? All they did was removed the D from the denver Die and used it on the P cents? Am I correct in this?

[wavysteps2003]

Hi Darrell - Not really; at that time, the Denver mint was making its own working dies, as was Philadelphia. I know that your question revolves around the phantom mint marks found on the 1997, 1998 and 1999 Philadelphia Lincoln cents.

What more than likely happened was that Denver sent a working hub to Philadelphia that was used after the "D" was abraded from the hub. Evidently, the removal was not complete and some of the "D" mintmark remained.

Some believe, erronously, that it was a working die that was sent, however, it is virtually impossible to fill a recess and have it hold up during the coin striking process as would have been the case in "filling" in the "D".

So the answer to your questions is, "no". Two different master hubs were used, one each at the different mints.

WAVYSTEPS2003 aka BJ Neff

[ldarrellc]

Ty for the answer but it didnt revolve around the phantom D. It revolved around the 1997 double ear. I thought what happened is that the denver mint after production sent the dies to the Phil. mint. But if that is not the case and they made there own dies. then that answers My question why hasnt there been any double ears on the denver cents of 1997.

[coppercoins]

At one time Philadelphia made all of the dies for all three mints. Back in 1993 Denver built its own die making shop and started making all of the dies for coins struck there.

At no time do I recollect hearing a case where used dies were shipped to a different mint for use. They were either unused dies from Philadelphia to other mints, or they were all made in-house to the mint that used them.