Q. David Bowers
Defective planchets and/or problems in striking (except for misalignment of dies) do not constitute die states. If a coin is weakly struck at the centers, due to inadequate die spacing, this is considered to be a weak or light strike, not a specific die state.
If a planchet was filed during the preparation process, to remove excess metal to bring the disc down to the proper weight, the resultant parallel grooves indented in the surface of a finished coin do not constitute a die state. Nor are they post-striking damage, though they may affect eye appeal and therefore price. No two coins have the same adjustment marks. Similarly, planchet cracks, carbon marks and streaks (black marks and streaks from an incomplete alloy mix), laminations, etc. are not die states.
Among dies made for early dollars, certainly none is more interesting than the "Four Year Reverse" die combined with six different obverses, and used to create coins of four different dates: 1795, 1796, 1797, and 1798. The die varieties are these: 1795 BB-51, 1796 BB-62, BB-63, and BB-66; 1797 BB-72, and 1795 BB-81.
The reverse is of the Small Eagle type-the motif first used in the silver dollar series in 1795 and continued through early 1798. Early in the 1798 calendar year, this general type was replaced by the Heraldic Eagle motif, which was used for the balance of the series.
I believe that the durable reverse die under discussion was first used in calendar year 1795, again in 1796, temporarily retired in 1797 (I believe coins bearing this date were struck in 1798), and used for the last time in early 1798 (to strike coins dated 1797 and 1798).
Envision this scenario:
1. FIRST USE OF THE REVERSE DIE: In the late autumn of 1795, Gilbert Stuart's new Draped Bust motif was introduced. The first pair of dollar dies made was employed to strike the variety known as BB-51. The obverse depicted Miss Liberty in Draped Bust form, with the motif too far to the left. On all subsequent obverse dies, Miss Liberty was more central. Hence, it seems reasonable to assume that the die with the portrait too far to the left represented a first effort, later corrected. The reverse was of a new style, with a small eagle perched on a cloud, with an olive branch to the left and a palm branch to the right. The words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA were placed around the periphery, widely spaced, and in small letters; what numismatists call the "Small Eagle, Small Letters reverse."
To create a souvenir of the occasion of issuing the first specimens, from the first dies, of the new design, prooflike presentation coins, perhaps even qualifying as full Proofs, were struck. In 1980 I catalogued the Garrett Collection specimen for the Johns Hopkins University. Described as a Proof, this piece is similar to that general style enumerated by Walter H. Breen in his Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins, p. 33, as having: mirrorlike fields, frosty heads and devices, exceptional sharpness including eagle's claws and breast feathers, good centering, etc. The occasion for manufacture of presentation pieces of this design was, of course, Henry William DeSaussure's achieving his ambition for having United States coins made from designs by the famous American portraitist Gilbert Stuart.
While cataloguing the Garrett coin I noted that "while it could be argued that the Philadelphia Mint did not have special apparatus for striking Proof coins on hand until 1817, certainly the specimen offered here is a de facto Proof by virtue of its appearance; it may be more conservative to describe it as a 'presentation piece.' " However, in 1992 Michael Hodder presented evidence that equipment for making Proofs was on hand before 1817.
Following the striking of presentation pieces, thousands of additional specimens were made of the 1795 BB-51 variety, perhaps until the obverse die broke or was otherwise rendered unfit for further use.
2. SECOND USE OF THE REVERSE DIE: In 1796, the Small Eagle, Small Letters reverse die used to coin 1795 BB-51 was mated with three different 1796-dated obverses, and used to coin 1796 BB-62 and a very few specimens of 1796 BB-63.
3. FINAL USE OF THE REVERSE DIE: Although a 1797-dated dollar, BB-72, has this reverse die, I do not believe it was actually struck in 1797. Early in 1798 it was decided to adopt the new Heraldic Eagle reverse, a design which was also used on the dimes of the year (no half dimes, quarters, or half dollars were struck in 1795; the last year the Small Eagle reverse was used on these denominations was 1797).
On hand at the Mint were these silver dollar dies:
Obverse 1: 1796 die never used in 1796 (the 1796 BB-66 obverse).
Obverse 2: 1797 9x7 stars obverse die never used in 1797. Obverse 3: Unused die, without date added yet, with 15 obverse stars. This die may have been prepared, without date, in late 1795 or 1796 (but before June 1796, when Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state) when 15 stars were the standard on silver dollars. The date was added in 1798. It is illogical to assume that this die was first made in 1798, as by then the standard obverse star count had been changed to 13, and no 15-star dies had been made since 1796 (alternatively, it could have been a blunder, as in the 1817 15- star Newcomb-16 cent).