Coin Makeovers

The new year brings the time for self-assessment, and this is true for the coinage of the United States. Whether performed for artistic or technical reasons, the U.S. Mint’s engravers have revised coin designs from time to time. The mint has used these coin redesigns to improve die functionality as well as the appearance of some specimens.

During the mint’s first couple of decades, new Liberty portraits and eagle figures came and went with some frequency, which was partly the result of trial and error. Some motifs proved to be a bit trite, while others did not allow the coins to survive the rigors of wide circulation. Once things settled down a bit, like in the 1820s , entirely new designs appeared less often. Instead, the mint’s engravers focused on tweaking the existing dies for coin redesigns. A major impetus for this was the conversion from open to close collars, which provided our coins with boldly raised rims and uniform diameters.

Perhaps the best example of such coin redesigns is the quarter dollar. This denomination underwent a brief suspension after 1828. When production resumed in 1831, the coin looked quite different, though it retained the same design elements. Thereafter, engravers gave Liberty a trimmer face and neck to appear a bit younger. The eagle also emerged somewhat more slender, losing its overhead banner in the process. This conversion was less radical for the other denominations, but all were different interpretations of the same devices. The cent’s bust of Liberty saw the greatest number of makeovers, with several versions debuting from 1835 through 1843.

When the U.S. Mint first coined Christian Gobrecht’s Seated Liberty dime and half dime in 1837, Liberty’s posture was slightly strained. Three years later, the U.S. Mint hired artist Robert Ball Hughes to act as her “chiropractor,” helping her to sit upright and better fill the field of the obverse. Hughes seems to have prepared a feast to celebrate the occasion, as Liberty had acquired some girth. Whether or not Hughes intended to make that modification, this revision is more reflective of art from the period.

During the 19th century, such coin redesigns were common enough on United States specimens that the public accepted them as a normal practice. In the 20th century, however, the mint made a conscious effort to keep any such changes subtle enough to escape non-numismatists’ attention. Its efforts were thwarted a bit when outside sculptors were commissioned to provide coin designs. The result was two very obvious reverse subtypes for the 1913 nickel and radically revised versions of the 1917 quarter dollar. Once engravers worked out the bugs, they made no further alterations, beyond recessing the quarter’s date to protect it from wear, starting in 1925. The nickel would have benefited from a similar change, but this never occurred, and the result was millions of “dateless” Buffalo nickels.

The lengthy duration of many 20th-century coin designs led to another form of makeover. Engravers strengthened the master hub for the 1916 Lincoln cent’s obverse with a degree of hair detail superior to that on the 1909 original. However, engravers allowed this hub to deteriorate for the next 50-plus years. The creation of new master dies annually from this master hub caused it to wear noticeably in the 1920s. The erosion process accelerated with the high mintages of 1934 and subsequent years. By the time it was used to sink 1968’s master die, this hub had worn to the point where Lincoln’s portrait had no definable hair strands, and the peripheral mottoes had migrated toward the rim. The following year, engravers created a new obverse master hub from Victor D. Brenner’s original models. While not as detailed as the early Lincoln cents, it was a vast improvement over recent issues.

In a similar scenario, the U.S. Mint coined the Jefferson nickel, introduced in 1938, in huge numbers during its first 30 years. Due to the repeated striking, the hub lost its sharp features along the way. The mint created new obverse and reverse master hubs for the 1971 edition. These changes can be easily seen in side-by-side comparisons with nickels from the previous several years. For collectors seeking Jefferson nickels with the desirable Full Steps detail, this was a welcome move.

During the past 50 years or so, the U.S. Mint has made ever-more-frequent touch-ups to the nation’s coins. The mint has done this to address erosion or outward stretching of the master hubs, but another element has been added. One requirement of modern, ultra-high-speed presses is that our coins be quite shallow in relief for mass production. The mint has sacrificed concave fields and bold sculpting of earlier issues to this mandate. Due to this, the mint has also greatly reduced die erosion and vastly increased fully struck pieces. While perhaps less satisfying as art, the U.S. Mint has considerably improved our current coinage from a purely technical standpoint. This trend is just the latest in a long history of coin makeovers.

A version of this article appeared in the January 2020 issue of The Numismatist (money.org).