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Some Varieties of the 1859 Canadian
Large Cent
Large Cent
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With well over 400 different Die Varieties the 1859 Canadian Large Cent is recognized as the "King of Canadian coin Varieties"
This website will explore just a few of these.
** To see the varieties just click on the links above. Feel free to brouse and sign the guest book if you would like. **
Welcome to what I hope will be the most in-depth look to date at the most interesting variety coin in the entire Canadian Decimal series. The 1859 is truly a wonderful coin from a variety collectors stand point & has been dubbed the “King of Canadian Varieties”. After over 140 years there are still a lot of questions that arise when one looks deeply at this coin and its past. Many of these questions will never have definitive answers but there are theories that point to possible answers. Poor record keeping, bad working conditions as well as less than desirable quality standards at a mint that utilized child labor, and for a minor colony (Canada) leads to a lot of unanswerable questions. Speculation leads us to possible theories, that although not all of us will ever agree upon 100% will enrich us in getting us looking at this coin through a new set of eyes or from a different perspective. I hope you will enjoy.
Simple yet elegant the 1858/1859 large cent design is one of my favorites. In fact it can be argued that the Obverse portrait used on the Canadian 1858/1859 is amongst the most beautiful designs in the numismatic world. The youthful portrait of Queen Victoria wearing a laurel wreath as opposed to a crown seems to fit nicely with the times.
Leonard C Wyon created the design at a time when Canada, still just a colony was at its infancy. When the Act of 1857 was signed & Canada decided to go to the dollar/cent/mil system and turn away from the pound/shilling system used by England, they also decided to use the Cent as an all around tool. They specifically made it to be precisely 1 inch in diameter & with a weight of 100 coins per pound. In need of coinage the Province of Canada ordered an astounding 10,000.000 coins. This was an amazing number of coins to produce, in fact it would prove to be enough to last 17 years before Canada, which officially became a Country in 1867, would need more 1 cent pieces to be struck. During the 17 years it took to use up this stock millions of these sat, stored in boxes in bank vaults. A few million even found their way to the Province of New Brunswick in 1861 to be used as currency until their own currency was ready. Initially, there was an unpopular public opinion about these NEW lighter coins. The public up until this time were accustomed to using the pre-confederate tokens & British Half Pennies, which were much thicker & heavier. In 1876 more Canadian 1 cent pieces were minted. Possibly due to the unpopularity of the size of the 1858/1859 coins the new 1876 coins were struck on Planchets that would retain the 1-inch diameter but be 25% thicker & heavier.
Some of the Coins that were used in Canada around 1859 included the British Penny, 1859 Large cent, British Half Penny, as well as several Tokens.
The Designer
Leonard Charles Wyon 1826-1891 was born in a small house on the grounds of the mint & learned his craft from his father William Wyon. In fact the Wyon family had many members involved over the years in the designs of many Tokens & Coins. Leonard Wyon excelled at his craft and by the age of just 16 he had already designed many medals. He moved up quickly in the mint and at the age of 18 was appointed to the position of Second Engraver. In 1851, and just 24 years old he succeeded his father William as Modeller & Engraver. L.C. The list of Wyons designs is extensive. He created designs for several countries and colonies including Australia, Bikanir, Britain, British East Africa, British Guiana, British Honduras, British India, British India Native States of Alwar, Canada, Ceylon, Cyprus, Dwas & Dgar, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Jersey, Malta, Mauritius, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, The Straights Settlement & the West Indies.
Composition of the Planchets
The Royal Mint made the dies and produced the finished coins but the Royal Mint contracted out the making of the blanks as up until then they had next to no experience in working with bronze. In fact all the small denominational coins they had made up until this point had been struck in copper. They contracted out the making of 10 million one-cent blanks to the Heaton and Sons mint in Birmingham, who had considerable experience with making coins and working with bronze. The Heaton mint had been making the 1, 2, 5 & 10 Centime coins for France, in the Marseilles Mint, in the early 1850's
The 1859 Large cents were composed of Bronze, which is primarily a mixture of about 95% Copper 4% Tin & 1% Zinc. By adding Tin this makes the metal much stronger than Copper and more resistant to corrosion. A few Brass examples have surfaced which like Bronze, is Copper based. The Brass 1859s are made up of approximately 70% Copper & 30% Zinc but the percentages can vary widely in this variety. They are also most likely the result of improper mixing of the alloys. The primary alloy, Copper was mixed with approx 4% Tin & 1% Zinc and other alloys may also exist such as Lead. It is speculated that on at least one occasion the Zinc being lighter than Tin, rose to the surface mixing with Copper and possibly forming a very thin layer of Brass. This was poured out into a strip that would eventually be fed through a Blanking Press. The very end of this strip had much higher concentrations of Zinc mixed in with the copper forming Brass so the Blanks at the end of this strip produced later became the Brass variety. These are rarely seen however and exhibit a distinctly Yellow colour. In edition there were a few Trial pieces struck in Cupro Nickel, a combination of 70-90% Copper & 10-30% Nickel, as well as trials of the obverse only stuck in Lead.
Minting Process
In order to produce a coin the first step in the process was to create a sketch or a drawing of the accepted design. At this point either a Master Hub or a Master Die would be prepared. The difference between a Hub & a Die is that on a Hub all the elements are in relief, protruding from the fields. On a Die the elements are incused or indented into the fields. It would have been much simpler to create a Master Die (Master Punch) initially as it is far easier to Punch and engrave the elements into the fields rather than to remove the fields & leave the elements in relief. In order to prepare this Master Die an engraver would have used several punches to hammer the elements into the Master Die Blank, which had been softened by heating it. The elements on the Obverse Master Die would have included the Beads, Victoria’s portrait, all the letters of the words in the legend. The Reverse Master Die elements would have included the letters in the words ONE CENT, the digits 1 & 8, the Beads, the Serpentine Vine, and the 16 maple leaves. The digits 5 & 9 would be added to the individual working dies prior to production. Once these elements were Punched into & engraved into the Master Dies the Master Die would be hardened by high heat and rapid cooling.
This Master Die would now be used to produce Hubs (Matrices). By taking a softened Hub Blank and pressing the Master Die into the Hub Blank it leave the elements in relief. Again after each “Hubbing” the Hub would be heated or annealed to soften it. Once this was complete an engraver would inspect it and make minor corrections if necessary.
At this point the Hubs (Matrices) would now be used to create Working Dies by the same process. As each Die came off the Hub the engraver would correct any weakly struck elements either by re-punching or re-engraving them. This is why we see re-punched elements such as the 1, 5, letters in ONE CENT, occasionally the Vine as well as the Obverse lettering. The engraver would also add the digits 5 & 9 with a hand punch at this time & this is why we so many punch space varieties for the 5 & 9.
I suspect that the same hub used to produce the 1858 was utilized for the 1859s as well. By looking at the Vines located on the reverse of both 1859s and 1859/8s one can see a pattern develop. On every 1859 variety examined, including the 1859/8 two areas show a broken vine. These positions can be found at the 5:00 & 9:00 position. Several also show weak or missing detail, which can occur at any spot of the vine, but seem to always be on the outside closest to the rim. The chance of the 5:00 & 9:00 areas becoming worn on virtually all the Dies due to Die deterioration would be nearly impossible. This means that these areas were affected from the very beginning probably on the master die. Since the 1859/8, which shows the exact same patterns originally came from an 1858 Hub, it can be surmised that the same Hub was carried over & used to produce the 1859 narrow 9 dies. Keep in mind that the Hub lacked the last two digits, which would have been hand punched into the new die. Interestingly the Broken vines that always occur at the 5:00 & 9:00 positions show far less damage in the 9/8 varieties. The broken area is much longer on the majority of narrow 9 varieties, further indication that the hubs became damaged as they produced dies. By the time they were used on the narrow 9 variety coins these areas showed much greater damage.
The Dies:
By examining this series it soon becomes evident that there many dies were used in the production of 1859 large cents, just how many may never be known but there are several things that should be considered.
The large cent being composed of Bronze would have been hard on these dies. England was at that time producing their own Pennies & Halfpennies, which were struck in the much softer metal, Copper. Furthermore they had never minted more than 2 million pennies or halfpennies in a single year, with the exception of the 1854 that had a mintage of 12,000,000. Most of these in fact had a mintage of less than 1 million. Bronze, being much harder than Copper & the overwhelming number of coins needed would have caused the dies to wear out much faster.
Another possible issue that may have caused these Dies to wear out so rapidly may have been the thickness of the planchet themselves. The British Pennies & Half Pennies were much thicker and may have added a cushioning effect to the dies as they struck the coins. With the much thinner 1858 & 1859 plancets there would have been less of a cushioning effect and the Dies may have taken much greater shock and cracked much earlier.
During the preparation of the Die they heat the Die Blank to soften it. Then with great force they press the Master Hub into the Die causing the relief elements (Leaves Vines digits etc) of the Hub to be incused into the Die. This caused the Die to harden and they would have to re-heat it again to soften it as they would repeat the above procedure several times to get a Good impression.
A major difference between the British Half Penny, the Penny & the 1858 1859 large cent is the Reverse Design itself. The 1858 & 1859s are much more intricate with the Vine & leaves and would have taken many more Heating Pressing Heating Pressing attempts to get this amount of design into the Working Dies. Possible these Dies were actually over tempered and became much Harder and Brittle in the process.
I’ve noticed that the Reverse Dies wore out much faster than the Obverse Dies by looking at the number of Die Breaks that occur there in comparison.
I’ve also found a number of Reverse varieties that share the same obverse, sometimes as many as 4 reverse dies were used with a single obverse die. This not only proves that the Obverse Dies were salvaged and used with a new reverse die , but it also indicates that the obverse die outlasted the reverse die significantly.
There is evidence to the amount dies that may have been needed for the 1859 large cent. One must look at the 1860 British Half Penny and reach there own conclusion. We know that in 1860 it was decided to use Bronze instead of copper on the British Pennies & Half Pennies. The Royal Mint, busy producing Gold & Silver coinage contracted out 1720 tons of Pennies Half Pennies & Farthings to James Watt & Co. The Royal Mint however did produce a few of these coins to test the Dies before handing the work over to Watt. Both the Royal Mint & James Watt had great problems in producing these coins. The major problem encountered was that to many dies were being broken. They were finding that the dies were breaking after producing just 30,000 on average coins instead of the expected 60,000.
If we use these numbers and apply them to the 1859 with a mintage of 10,000,000 we come up with 333 Dies. As mentioned earlier, I believe that the Obverse Dies lasted possibly on average twice as long as the obverse dies, so perhaps between 200 & 300 reverse dies and 100 & 200 obverse dies were used.
The Press
The 1858 & 1859 coins would have been produced on a press called a knuckle press created by Dietrich Uhlhorn of Germany. Unlike todays modern presses which are quite capable of producing up to 750 coins per minute the old knuckel presses were capable of producing up to 120 coins per minute.
TYPES OF VARIETIES
Over Punch
The dies from 1858 were re-conditioned by punching a much wider 9 over the existing 8. Traces of the 8 can be seen at different areas of the 9 on many of these or there may be other elements of interest. There were in fact at least 13 1858 dies modified in this way. It has been assumed that the 1859 9/8s were amongst the 1st 1859s produced. Whether or not these were the 1st coins off the press is open for debate. In my opinion they may have been much later than this. I find it difficult to believe that the mint had not prepared enough 1859 dies for the initial start up knowing they would need 10,000,000 coins. In fact it is probable that the initial coins were in fact narrow 9s but the mint seriously underestimated the number of dies that would be needed for such a vast quantity of coins. Further more they had never minted more than 2 million pennies or halfpennies in a single year, with the exception of the 1854 that had a mintage of 12,000,000. Most of these in fact had a mintage of less than 1 million. Bronze, being much harder than copper would have caused the dies to wear out much faster. Late in the production it was realized that many of the dies were failing and instead of preparing new dies, which would have taken much time & effort, it was decided to modify the old 1858 dies. This scenario fits with the methods employed by the royal mint of that era. Canada was after all, just a minor colony & quality really was not a major factor to be considered. As stated earlier there were at least 13 1858 dies modified with the wide 9. Interestingly none display heavy die breaks, which one would expect from the initial dies.
Font Style
Different styles of font were used with Narrow, Coarse, Bold, digits & letters. You will find many of these listed here. It has been argued that a lot of these “Bold” elements were created through die deterioration, as the die wore out letters & digits became bolder. I contend that this is indeed a factor but how does one explain a Bold or Coarse 9 on a coin that lacks Die Breaks, also a result of die deterioration. There are also very narrow 9s that have several Die Breaks.
Re-punching
In Victorian times the preparation of dies was much different than today. Digits, Letters, & other elements were hand punched into the Dies. This created some incredible diversity when you consider the amount of dies being implemented in 1859. It has been traditional to call these varieties Double Punched. I feel that Re-punch is a more suitable description as these may be Re-punched several times. I have listed one variety of 9 that is actually Triple Punched. This is especially true on the letters on the Obverse & on some of the Reverse Letters in ONE CENT as well. These were created when an engraver using a punch would hand punch an element into the Die. Sometimes his first attempt was either not hard enough to get a good impression or the element was off target. Sometimes this was left resulting in a weakly struck element or crooked digit or an attempt was wade to “cover up” this blunder. This was done either by Re-Punching or Re-engraving (see below) the element. If it was decided to re-punch then the engraver would place the punch over the element & re-strike it. This sometimes resulted in traces of the original element to still be seen.
Re-engraved
As above the engraver would attempt to correct a blunder through Re-engraving. This was performed not with a punch, but with more precise tools. Just like carving a piece of wood or soap these tools were used to “touch up an element. On occasion the engravers hand slipped leaving a scar in the die that would later be seen as an upraised area on the coin. Re-engraving was more likely to be performed if the initial mistake was minimal and so Re-engraved elements are generally less dramatic than Re-Punched elements but there are always exceptions. Another characteristic of a Re-engraved element is that the engraving usually appears in one area whereas a Re-punched digit shows in two or more areas.
Die Chips
Die Chip varieties are different from re-punched, re-engraved, over punched varieties in that they are a result of Die Deterioration. As the coins were manufactured continuous strain on the dies caused imperfections in the original design. Some of the imperfections were clashed dies, die breaks, elements becoming bolder, and die chips. A Die Chip is created when a piece of the die chips away, causing an upraised area to appear on the coin. Usually this appears off an element such as a digit or letter, as these are the areas that absorb the most strain during the process.
A Word About Clashed Dies & Die Breaks
I would not consider these to be Varieties but thought I’d mention them here, as they are quite useful in attributing varieties. These occur as a result of die use. As the coins were manufactured stress on the dies caused these imperfections to develop.
Die Clashes are created when a coin, during the minting process gets flipped over and causes an Impression of the Obverse or Reverse Die into the opposite Die. There are many 1859s that show interesting Die Clashes. These are generally most often seen on the reverse and are usually most evident around the 8 & 9 of the date. They usually show the Queens throat & chin & may be very detailed or more subtle. On some occasions much more of the Queens bust is evident and there are several 1859s where even traces of the laurel wreath, ear, & hair is noticeable.
Die Breaks are also the result of Die Deterioration and occur when one of the Dies crack. This leaves an upraised line on the coin. Some are quite small while others are very pronounced. They also became larger and more pronounced as the minting process continues. These along with the obverse doubled letters make excellent “markers” in attributing varieties as they are like fingerprints. No two Obverse or Reverse Dies will have the same Die Break in the same area. It must also be kept in mind that just because a suspected variety lacks a Die Break it may still be the this variety as die breaks can occur at any time during the minting process. The coin may show all the other characteristics such as, Re-punched Letters, Font Type, Digit Spacing etc but lack a Die Break. It could be an earlier form where, because the Die was fresh Die Breaks had not developed at this stage.
Another interesting point is that it is possible to find varieties that implemented the same obverse die. The reason for this is that if a Obverse or Reverse Die failed they would salvage the remaining die & pair it off with another & continue production. This created even more varieties.
Attributing Die Varieties
Each Die variety is unique in some way. There are several ways to go about identifying which coin came off which die. Primary indicators would be Vine tracking & re-punched re-engraved letters as well as digit location. Secondary indicators include Die Breaks and Die Clashes. Often secondary indicators are easier to spot, however these occurred only after the Die was well into production. As the Die struck coins these defects occurred.
Primary Markers
Vine Tracking (Reverse): For every Die created pressure was applied to a Die Blank from the hub. This left an impression in the Working Die from the hub. Many of the details of the Hub were weakly struck or missing in the vine area due to different pressures applied to each Working Die. It also looks like the Hub became damaged as it produced Dies. You will find certain areas of the Vine that are completely missing on most 1859s. I suspect that these areas are missing because they gradually chipped off the Hub as it produced Working Dies. There are areas of the vine that are very weak as well, an indication that not as much pressure was applied to the Die Blank to get a good impression. These areas were most likely low on the Hub in the first place. Some varieties show very thin vines while others possess much thicker vines. Again as the Hub produced Dies these areas became Bolder.
Re-punched /Re-engraved Letters/Digits (Obverse/Reverse): After the Working Die was removed from the Hub an engraver would examine it. On almost every Reverse die certain letters in the words CANADA VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA of the legend would need to be “touched up” due to inadequate pressure applied from the Hub during the production of the die. He would use a punch or engraving tools to improve these elements. Traces of this can be very easy to see or much more difficult, depending on the quality of the engravers work. The same applies to the 1 & 8 digits of the Reverse.
Digit Location: The 5 & 9 were added to the Working Die after if came off the Hub. The engraver used hand punches to apply the last two digits to the dies. On each Die the location & angle of the 5 & 9 very. The 5 & 9 can be high, low, near, far, or slanting left or right. They were also re-punched or re-engraved if they were weakly struck.
Secondary Markers
Die Breaks: These are the result of a Working Die becoming damaged (cracked) as a result of over use during the production run. These Die Breaks could have resulted at anytime after the Die was put into production. As more and more coins were produced these became larger & would eventually cause the Die to fail. Because of the huge number of coins needed the 1859 Dies were really pushed beyond their limits. Because they are very easy to spot and occurred randomly at certain areas of the Die they make great Indicators in attributing varieties, but because they occurred after production began are not 100% accurate. Almost every variety will exist without Die Breaks with the exception of Varieties that occurred due to Die Deterioration.
Die Clashes: Like the Die Breaks these occurred after production began. These are a result of an Obverse & Reverse Die striking each other & leaving an impression in the opposite die. If a planchet was not present during the strike the two Dies met. Like the Die Breaks they are rather common on the 1859 and are also good indicators of a variety but will not occur on all examples of a given variety.
This website will explore just a few of these.
** To see the varieties just click on the links above. Feel free to brouse and sign the guest book if you would like. **
Welcome to what I hope will be the most in-depth look to date at the most interesting variety coin in the entire Canadian Decimal series. The 1859 is truly a wonderful coin from a variety collectors stand point & has been dubbed the “King of Canadian Varieties”. After over 140 years there are still a lot of questions that arise when one looks deeply at this coin and its past. Many of these questions will never have definitive answers but there are theories that point to possible answers. Poor record keeping, bad working conditions as well as less than desirable quality standards at a mint that utilized child labor, and for a minor colony (Canada) leads to a lot of unanswerable questions. Speculation leads us to possible theories, that although not all of us will ever agree upon 100% will enrich us in getting us looking at this coin through a new set of eyes or from a different perspective. I hope you will enjoy.
Simple yet elegant the 1858/1859 large cent design is one of my favorites. In fact it can be argued that the Obverse portrait used on the Canadian 1858/1859 is amongst the most beautiful designs in the numismatic world. The youthful portrait of Queen Victoria wearing a laurel wreath as opposed to a crown seems to fit nicely with the times.
Leonard C Wyon created the design at a time when Canada, still just a colony was at its infancy. When the Act of 1857 was signed & Canada decided to go to the dollar/cent/mil system and turn away from the pound/shilling system used by England, they also decided to use the Cent as an all around tool. They specifically made it to be precisely 1 inch in diameter & with a weight of 100 coins per pound. In need of coinage the Province of Canada ordered an astounding 10,000.000 coins. This was an amazing number of coins to produce, in fact it would prove to be enough to last 17 years before Canada, which officially became a Country in 1867, would need more 1 cent pieces to be struck. During the 17 years it took to use up this stock millions of these sat, stored in boxes in bank vaults. A few million even found their way to the Province of New Brunswick in 1861 to be used as currency until their own currency was ready. Initially, there was an unpopular public opinion about these NEW lighter coins. The public up until this time were accustomed to using the pre-confederate tokens & British Half Pennies, which were much thicker & heavier. In 1876 more Canadian 1 cent pieces were minted. Possibly due to the unpopularity of the size of the 1858/1859 coins the new 1876 coins were struck on Planchets that would retain the 1-inch diameter but be 25% thicker & heavier.
Some of the Coins that were used in Canada around 1859 included the British Penny, 1859 Large cent, British Half Penny, as well as several Tokens.
The Designer
Leonard Charles Wyon 1826-1891 was born in a small house on the grounds of the mint & learned his craft from his father William Wyon. In fact the Wyon family had many members involved over the years in the designs of many Tokens & Coins. Leonard Wyon excelled at his craft and by the age of just 16 he had already designed many medals. He moved up quickly in the mint and at the age of 18 was appointed to the position of Second Engraver. In 1851, and just 24 years old he succeeded his father William as Modeller & Engraver. L.C. The list of Wyons designs is extensive. He created designs for several countries and colonies including Australia, Bikanir, Britain, British East Africa, British Guiana, British Honduras, British India, British India Native States of Alwar, Canada, Ceylon, Cyprus, Dwas & Dgar, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Jersey, Malta, Mauritius, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, The Straights Settlement & the West Indies.
Composition of the Planchets
The Royal Mint made the dies and produced the finished coins but the Royal Mint contracted out the making of the blanks as up until then they had next to no experience in working with bronze. In fact all the small denominational coins they had made up until this point had been struck in copper. They contracted out the making of 10 million one-cent blanks to the Heaton and Sons mint in Birmingham, who had considerable experience with making coins and working with bronze. The Heaton mint had been making the 1, 2, 5 & 10 Centime coins for France, in the Marseilles Mint, in the early 1850's
The 1859 Large cents were composed of Bronze, which is primarily a mixture of about 95% Copper 4% Tin & 1% Zinc. By adding Tin this makes the metal much stronger than Copper and more resistant to corrosion. A few Brass examples have surfaced which like Bronze, is Copper based. The Brass 1859s are made up of approximately 70% Copper & 30% Zinc but the percentages can vary widely in this variety. They are also most likely the result of improper mixing of the alloys. The primary alloy, Copper was mixed with approx 4% Tin & 1% Zinc and other alloys may also exist such as Lead. It is speculated that on at least one occasion the Zinc being lighter than Tin, rose to the surface mixing with Copper and possibly forming a very thin layer of Brass. This was poured out into a strip that would eventually be fed through a Blanking Press. The very end of this strip had much higher concentrations of Zinc mixed in with the copper forming Brass so the Blanks at the end of this strip produced later became the Brass variety. These are rarely seen however and exhibit a distinctly Yellow colour. In edition there were a few Trial pieces struck in Cupro Nickel, a combination of 70-90% Copper & 10-30% Nickel, as well as trials of the obverse only stuck in Lead.
Minting Process
In order to produce a coin the first step in the process was to create a sketch or a drawing of the accepted design. At this point either a Master Hub or a Master Die would be prepared. The difference between a Hub & a Die is that on a Hub all the elements are in relief, protruding from the fields. On a Die the elements are incused or indented into the fields. It would have been much simpler to create a Master Die (Master Punch) initially as it is far easier to Punch and engrave the elements into the fields rather than to remove the fields & leave the elements in relief. In order to prepare this Master Die an engraver would have used several punches to hammer the elements into the Master Die Blank, which had been softened by heating it. The elements on the Obverse Master Die would have included the Beads, Victoria’s portrait, all the letters of the words in the legend. The Reverse Master Die elements would have included the letters in the words ONE CENT, the digits 1 & 8, the Beads, the Serpentine Vine, and the 16 maple leaves. The digits 5 & 9 would be added to the individual working dies prior to production. Once these elements were Punched into & engraved into the Master Dies the Master Die would be hardened by high heat and rapid cooling.
This Master Die would now be used to produce Hubs (Matrices). By taking a softened Hub Blank and pressing the Master Die into the Hub Blank it leave the elements in relief. Again after each “Hubbing” the Hub would be heated or annealed to soften it. Once this was complete an engraver would inspect it and make minor corrections if necessary.
At this point the Hubs (Matrices) would now be used to create Working Dies by the same process. As each Die came off the Hub the engraver would correct any weakly struck elements either by re-punching or re-engraving them. This is why we see re-punched elements such as the 1, 5, letters in ONE CENT, occasionally the Vine as well as the Obverse lettering. The engraver would also add the digits 5 & 9 with a hand punch at this time & this is why we so many punch space varieties for the 5 & 9.
I suspect that the same hub used to produce the 1858 was utilized for the 1859s as well. By looking at the Vines located on the reverse of both 1859s and 1859/8s one can see a pattern develop. On every 1859 variety examined, including the 1859/8 two areas show a broken vine. These positions can be found at the 5:00 & 9:00 position. Several also show weak or missing detail, which can occur at any spot of the vine, but seem to always be on the outside closest to the rim. The chance of the 5:00 & 9:00 areas becoming worn on virtually all the Dies due to Die deterioration would be nearly impossible. This means that these areas were affected from the very beginning probably on the master die. Since the 1859/8, which shows the exact same patterns originally came from an 1858 Hub, it can be surmised that the same Hub was carried over & used to produce the 1859 narrow 9 dies. Keep in mind that the Hub lacked the last two digits, which would have been hand punched into the new die. Interestingly the Broken vines that always occur at the 5:00 & 9:00 positions show far less damage in the 9/8 varieties. The broken area is much longer on the majority of narrow 9 varieties, further indication that the hubs became damaged as they produced dies. By the time they were used on the narrow 9 variety coins these areas showed much greater damage.
The Dies:
By examining this series it soon becomes evident that there many dies were used in the production of 1859 large cents, just how many may never be known but there are several things that should be considered.
The large cent being composed of Bronze would have been hard on these dies. England was at that time producing their own Pennies & Halfpennies, which were struck in the much softer metal, Copper. Furthermore they had never minted more than 2 million pennies or halfpennies in a single year, with the exception of the 1854 that had a mintage of 12,000,000. Most of these in fact had a mintage of less than 1 million. Bronze, being much harder than Copper & the overwhelming number of coins needed would have caused the dies to wear out much faster.
Another possible issue that may have caused these Dies to wear out so rapidly may have been the thickness of the planchet themselves. The British Pennies & Half Pennies were much thicker and may have added a cushioning effect to the dies as they struck the coins. With the much thinner 1858 & 1859 plancets there would have been less of a cushioning effect and the Dies may have taken much greater shock and cracked much earlier.
During the preparation of the Die they heat the Die Blank to soften it. Then with great force they press the Master Hub into the Die causing the relief elements (Leaves Vines digits etc) of the Hub to be incused into the Die. This caused the Die to harden and they would have to re-heat it again to soften it as they would repeat the above procedure several times to get a Good impression.
A major difference between the British Half Penny, the Penny & the 1858 1859 large cent is the Reverse Design itself. The 1858 & 1859s are much more intricate with the Vine & leaves and would have taken many more Heating Pressing Heating Pressing attempts to get this amount of design into the Working Dies. Possible these Dies were actually over tempered and became much Harder and Brittle in the process.
I’ve noticed that the Reverse Dies wore out much faster than the Obverse Dies by looking at the number of Die Breaks that occur there in comparison.
I’ve also found a number of Reverse varieties that share the same obverse, sometimes as many as 4 reverse dies were used with a single obverse die. This not only proves that the Obverse Dies were salvaged and used with a new reverse die , but it also indicates that the obverse die outlasted the reverse die significantly.
There is evidence to the amount dies that may have been needed for the 1859 large cent. One must look at the 1860 British Half Penny and reach there own conclusion. We know that in 1860 it was decided to use Bronze instead of copper on the British Pennies & Half Pennies. The Royal Mint, busy producing Gold & Silver coinage contracted out 1720 tons of Pennies Half Pennies & Farthings to James Watt & Co. The Royal Mint however did produce a few of these coins to test the Dies before handing the work over to Watt. Both the Royal Mint & James Watt had great problems in producing these coins. The major problem encountered was that to many dies were being broken. They were finding that the dies were breaking after producing just 30,000 on average coins instead of the expected 60,000.
If we use these numbers and apply them to the 1859 with a mintage of 10,000,000 we come up with 333 Dies. As mentioned earlier, I believe that the Obverse Dies lasted possibly on average twice as long as the obverse dies, so perhaps between 200 & 300 reverse dies and 100 & 200 obverse dies were used.
The Press
The 1858 & 1859 coins would have been produced on a press called a knuckle press created by Dietrich Uhlhorn of Germany. Unlike todays modern presses which are quite capable of producing up to 750 coins per minute the old knuckel presses were capable of producing up to 120 coins per minute.
TYPES OF VARIETIES
Over Punch
The dies from 1858 were re-conditioned by punching a much wider 9 over the existing 8. Traces of the 8 can be seen at different areas of the 9 on many of these or there may be other elements of interest. There were in fact at least 13 1858 dies modified in this way. It has been assumed that the 1859 9/8s were amongst the 1st 1859s produced. Whether or not these were the 1st coins off the press is open for debate. In my opinion they may have been much later than this. I find it difficult to believe that the mint had not prepared enough 1859 dies for the initial start up knowing they would need 10,000,000 coins. In fact it is probable that the initial coins were in fact narrow 9s but the mint seriously underestimated the number of dies that would be needed for such a vast quantity of coins. Further more they had never minted more than 2 million pennies or halfpennies in a single year, with the exception of the 1854 that had a mintage of 12,000,000. Most of these in fact had a mintage of less than 1 million. Bronze, being much harder than copper would have caused the dies to wear out much faster. Late in the production it was realized that many of the dies were failing and instead of preparing new dies, which would have taken much time & effort, it was decided to modify the old 1858 dies. This scenario fits with the methods employed by the royal mint of that era. Canada was after all, just a minor colony & quality really was not a major factor to be considered. As stated earlier there were at least 13 1858 dies modified with the wide 9. Interestingly none display heavy die breaks, which one would expect from the initial dies.
Font Style
Different styles of font were used with Narrow, Coarse, Bold, digits & letters. You will find many of these listed here. It has been argued that a lot of these “Bold” elements were created through die deterioration, as the die wore out letters & digits became bolder. I contend that this is indeed a factor but how does one explain a Bold or Coarse 9 on a coin that lacks Die Breaks, also a result of die deterioration. There are also very narrow 9s that have several Die Breaks.
Re-punching
In Victorian times the preparation of dies was much different than today. Digits, Letters, & other elements were hand punched into the Dies. This created some incredible diversity when you consider the amount of dies being implemented in 1859. It has been traditional to call these varieties Double Punched. I feel that Re-punch is a more suitable description as these may be Re-punched several times. I have listed one variety of 9 that is actually Triple Punched. This is especially true on the letters on the Obverse & on some of the Reverse Letters in ONE CENT as well. These were created when an engraver using a punch would hand punch an element into the Die. Sometimes his first attempt was either not hard enough to get a good impression or the element was off target. Sometimes this was left resulting in a weakly struck element or crooked digit or an attempt was wade to “cover up” this blunder. This was done either by Re-Punching or Re-engraving (see below) the element. If it was decided to re-punch then the engraver would place the punch over the element & re-strike it. This sometimes resulted in traces of the original element to still be seen.
Re-engraved
As above the engraver would attempt to correct a blunder through Re-engraving. This was performed not with a punch, but with more precise tools. Just like carving a piece of wood or soap these tools were used to “touch up an element. On occasion the engravers hand slipped leaving a scar in the die that would later be seen as an upraised area on the coin. Re-engraving was more likely to be performed if the initial mistake was minimal and so Re-engraved elements are generally less dramatic than Re-Punched elements but there are always exceptions. Another characteristic of a Re-engraved element is that the engraving usually appears in one area whereas a Re-punched digit shows in two or more areas.
Die Chips
Die Chip varieties are different from re-punched, re-engraved, over punched varieties in that they are a result of Die Deterioration. As the coins were manufactured continuous strain on the dies caused imperfections in the original design. Some of the imperfections were clashed dies, die breaks, elements becoming bolder, and die chips. A Die Chip is created when a piece of the die chips away, causing an upraised area to appear on the coin. Usually this appears off an element such as a digit or letter, as these are the areas that absorb the most strain during the process.
A Word About Clashed Dies & Die Breaks
I would not consider these to be Varieties but thought I’d mention them here, as they are quite useful in attributing varieties. These occur as a result of die use. As the coins were manufactured stress on the dies caused these imperfections to develop.
Die Clashes are created when a coin, during the minting process gets flipped over and causes an Impression of the Obverse or Reverse Die into the opposite Die. There are many 1859s that show interesting Die Clashes. These are generally most often seen on the reverse and are usually most evident around the 8 & 9 of the date. They usually show the Queens throat & chin & may be very detailed or more subtle. On some occasions much more of the Queens bust is evident and there are several 1859s where even traces of the laurel wreath, ear, & hair is noticeable.
Die Breaks are also the result of Die Deterioration and occur when one of the Dies crack. This leaves an upraised line on the coin. Some are quite small while others are very pronounced. They also became larger and more pronounced as the minting process continues. These along with the obverse doubled letters make excellent “markers” in attributing varieties as they are like fingerprints. No two Obverse or Reverse Dies will have the same Die Break in the same area. It must also be kept in mind that just because a suspected variety lacks a Die Break it may still be the this variety as die breaks can occur at any time during the minting process. The coin may show all the other characteristics such as, Re-punched Letters, Font Type, Digit Spacing etc but lack a Die Break. It could be an earlier form where, because the Die was fresh Die Breaks had not developed at this stage.
Another interesting point is that it is possible to find varieties that implemented the same obverse die. The reason for this is that if a Obverse or Reverse Die failed they would salvage the remaining die & pair it off with another & continue production. This created even more varieties.
Attributing Die Varieties
Each Die variety is unique in some way. There are several ways to go about identifying which coin came off which die. Primary indicators would be Vine tracking & re-punched re-engraved letters as well as digit location. Secondary indicators include Die Breaks and Die Clashes. Often secondary indicators are easier to spot, however these occurred only after the Die was well into production. As the Die struck coins these defects occurred.
Primary Markers
Vine Tracking (Reverse): For every Die created pressure was applied to a Die Blank from the hub. This left an impression in the Working Die from the hub. Many of the details of the Hub were weakly struck or missing in the vine area due to different pressures applied to each Working Die. It also looks like the Hub became damaged as it produced Dies. You will find certain areas of the Vine that are completely missing on most 1859s. I suspect that these areas are missing because they gradually chipped off the Hub as it produced Working Dies. There are areas of the vine that are very weak as well, an indication that not as much pressure was applied to the Die Blank to get a good impression. These areas were most likely low on the Hub in the first place. Some varieties show very thin vines while others possess much thicker vines. Again as the Hub produced Dies these areas became Bolder.
Re-punched /Re-engraved Letters/Digits (Obverse/Reverse): After the Working Die was removed from the Hub an engraver would examine it. On almost every Reverse die certain letters in the words CANADA VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA of the legend would need to be “touched up” due to inadequate pressure applied from the Hub during the production of the die. He would use a punch or engraving tools to improve these elements. Traces of this can be very easy to see or much more difficult, depending on the quality of the engravers work. The same applies to the 1 & 8 digits of the Reverse.
Digit Location: The 5 & 9 were added to the Working Die after if came off the Hub. The engraver used hand punches to apply the last two digits to the dies. On each Die the location & angle of the 5 & 9 very. The 5 & 9 can be high, low, near, far, or slanting left or right. They were also re-punched or re-engraved if they were weakly struck.
Secondary Markers
Die Breaks: These are the result of a Working Die becoming damaged (cracked) as a result of over use during the production run. These Die Breaks could have resulted at anytime after the Die was put into production. As more and more coins were produced these became larger & would eventually cause the Die to fail. Because of the huge number of coins needed the 1859 Dies were really pushed beyond their limits. Because they are very easy to spot and occurred randomly at certain areas of the Die they make great Indicators in attributing varieties, but because they occurred after production began are not 100% accurate. Almost every variety will exist without Die Breaks with the exception of Varieties that occurred due to Die Deterioration.
Die Clashes: Like the Die Breaks these occurred after production began. These are a result of an Obverse & Reverse Die striking each other & leaving an impression in the opposite die. If a planchet was not present during the strike the two Dies met. Like the Die Breaks they are rather common on the 1859 and are also good indicators of a variety but will not occur on all examples of a given variety.
