Posted by Thomas Kalantzis on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 Under: The Working Die.

Where are all the Eisenhower dollar proof doubled dies?

By Thomas Kalantzis

For the last ten years I have been collecting Ike dollar doubled dies by die number, I have amassed a very large collection of numbered Ike doubled dies by Ncadd-Wexler, Coneca and FS as well as many un-known or unrecorded doubled dies something over 200 different doubled dies, While doing my searches as time went on I ran into instances where the doubling was not easy to recognize the die number, die wear as well as die treatments as well as other die issues done at the mint for various reasons have effectively lowered the count of recognizable doubled dies?

Lets take the well known and sort after doubled die WDDO-008 is known to all attributers and collectors a-like and find this DDO listed with most, there are about 35 known and that is split up among the three attributors, it is known that the proof dies should have been able to produce 2000/2500 coins per die providing the die lasted to its full life expectancy so in this case we have nearly .04% accounted for, lets move on to “old” WDDO-009 reassigned listing WWHO-008 with about 55 coins known bringing the percentage up a bit but still less then .05%, this die as well as “old” WDDO-010 and also reassigned as WWHO-008 with just 5 coins known puts this one at just .03%, I have gone through most Working die numbers and find this same pattern all with just a few percentile of the known understood production number levels, So why is that? Lets look a little closer, the proof dollars shipped by the government from one to five coins per customer or address with only 2 + million made has gone out to all corners of the states, I have gone through 2500 1971 S proofs maybe a bit more to 3000 coins and continue to pick them up when available, when found in the five pack “original coins” they almost always come in pares of the same die or more, there are at least 111 doubled dies and working hub doubled dies combined at this time for the 1971 S proofs, many more working dies will be attributed as time goes by, could the reason for making so many working dies be they did not last for many reasons most had early life spans, die steel is one known reason, in 1972 new die steel was used to make the dies from another supplier, a harder steel that that ended the issues the mint had in 1971.

Possible reasons for low counts on the working hub doubled dies: from 1971 till mid 1972 the working die had hardness issue as a result fewer coins from each die, relief issues, the R in liberty is often found sanded down at the hub level to help lengthen the dies life, in the hubbing process if the float valve were to get any material in it could cause an off strike likewise tilt, rotation, pressure, can also help lesson finale numbers, die ware after so many strikes parts of the doubling images are lost as well as any repairs to the die for multiple reasons the mint has to polish down the working die, one reason is clash die when both dies touch together without a planchet images are shared by both obverse and reverse dies and get polished out as well as stress cracks on the die from use.

Last is how many have we seen? How many have been looked at? My guess is maby half or a little less.

Well we have gone through the numbers and possibilities and still a few questions continue to linger, if we have seen just 30% of the 1971 S proof Ikes we still have about two thirds to go through with a very odd issue at hand even if we account for two thirds we still do not have the correct numbers, could it be the next two thirds will be heavy with the doubled dies and bring the numbers to there estimated production levels? Or are we going to learn something new? I still continue to have the same question?