IDDD BLOG

IDDD position on Peg-legs by Thomas Kalantzis.

 Date 10/18/2012.

                                                     Working hubs are made, hubs that can be worked on! early on the mint had realized a problem with the high relief San Francisco working die's relief, early on the mint was dealing with dies braking up so a fix was needed, till a fix was realized a repair was needed, the working hubs were abraded and then used in the hubbing process to make working dies, notice all the high relief peg-legs for 1971 S dies show the left side ( Bottom left serif ) of the R removed and the right side changing from die to die, that is possible because each working hub was abraded separately left to right, the working dies are abraded also and is one reason they do not look alike another is the working die itself gets abraded and more changes occur to the working die depending on the amount of abrasion the die receives, abrading was done to both working hub and the working die.

The 1971-S FS-401 low relief was abraded the same as the high relief proofs as was done to the well-known Wexler Die WDDO-007 and Wiles DDO-009, IDDD has it listed as IDDDO-8A.

There is a third 1971 S Peg-leg, we believe straight Peg-leg is another yet another method of abrading the R in liberty, this time both serifs where abraded on each side as well as the top of the leg creating a more square leg and both serif's even, this was another experiment the mint used to create a square peg-leg, there are four known low relief die's to date with this experimental straight peg-leg, one die for 1971 S, one die for 1971 D, one die for 1972 P and one for 1972 D, the one known 1971 S straight leg is listed as IDDDO+V-118.

IDDD believes straight leg Peg-legs are experimental in nature and the shape being precursor for all 1972 S and beyond peg-legs. 

By 1972 a change was made for 1972 S mints, a design peg-leg is finally made and continued.

However experimenting continued for one known experimental 1972 Philadelphia die and one 1972 Denver die, a new method showed its head, by using the above surrogate master system the mints (Master die engineers) die specialists had all the hubs they needed to work on, once a new candidate ( Hub ) was engineered a new master die was made and in turn working hubs with a formed peg-leg, instead of abrading the hub from left to right it was tooled on each side of the leg, it seems this time a tool was used to make a straight leg on each side, different looking and this time engineered differently.  Through a new surrogate master the mint made a new this New type peg-leg, the original master with a full serif made a new hub this hub had its serif's on both sides removed with a dremal type or a tool that can do same, then a New master is made using the New up-graded hub ( R ) in liberty, this hub now ready to make a New master was used to do so, these new masters for 72 and beyond had a new look, look at the IN GOD WE TRUST there all tripled, this happened while the New master was made, same issues as in 71 with many dies looking the same so went the New surrogate master, this experimental new system went on to be the final or end product for the mint to do with the Peg-leg, 1972 and on used the above shape-styled peg-leg R for all designed peg-leg dies.

Take notice of the IGWT for 1972 s and 1973 s are the same, basically, and came from a same source, the R was cut down to be used for 1972 s coins, the surrogate master was used for 1973 s coins this time that surrogate used to make the 72 s peg-legs was used again but this time the surrogate master die's hubs where left alone, and is why we have the same tripling pattern as is seen for 1972 s and 1973 s coins with or without a peg-leg.

Be advised, die abrasion can produce amazing results, every die before use is abraded and polished and depending on the amount of die abrasion can and is part of the procedure. 

                                         Peg-leg process

 IDDD - A master die is used to make working hubs that are used to make working dies.

Question? so how then do we have peg-legs and full legged R in liberty with a same doubling pattern?

 IDDD after the hub or hubs are made and before being used to to make working dies any given hub can have the R in liberty abraded and then used to make working die's with a peg-leg, this answers why some same doubled die patterns are found with full R in liberty and peg-leg R in liberty and are the same because they are from a same source ( The Maser Die )

100% of all peg-legs for 1971 are first abraded on the working hub level, then the new dies are again abraded and polished as necessary, some dies are extremely abraded causing a strange looking peg-leg with almost none of the bottom leg left and easy to spot, these peg-legs are few and very collectible and are attributed as such by many.

The Mint documents spoke of surrogate dies being reserved to be used again but this time as Master dies thus implicating the use of surrogates.