just out of curiosity

[fiddle-fart]

I sure these questions have been asked before
SOOOO
on the average
how many coins does a die make before it's retired.

how many dies are used for any given year.

how many dies are redone to be reused again.

Hopefully not too many questions.... but


a mind is a terrible to waste

Mike

[Bob P]

There are lots and lots of variables to your questions Mike. A modern day cent die may strike up to a million cents. Some older dies were used until the struck images were just plain ugly (such as 1955). Proof dies may only strike between 3 and 5 thousand coins. Dies used at the end of the year may only strike a few thousand before the new year's dies are used. Of course, should anything happen to any die (such as a clash, die breakage etc) that number might shrink substantially.
We can take the total number of coins struck in any one year, and divide that by the number of strikes per die, to come up with an AVERAGE of how many dies were used. For instance, if there were 3 billion coins struck, and each die struck an average of 1 million coins, then 3,000 dies would have been used. As far as dies being 'redone', that does not happen. A die can be removed and cleaned up a bit by polishing, or other maintenance, and then re-used, but once a die is done, it is normally defaced or destroyed.

[eagames]

That is about what I think too.

Think of it this way, thousands of dies each year and they don't last long. In years with big doubled die cents they often get found mostly in a certain months shipment and even then getting a bag/box from that month is no guarantee you get any of them. I think 1995 DDOs were often in Feb? bags so people sell dated sealed bags for a lot. If you get one it might have a bunch, a few or none. Maybe in the giant bins a few cents stay at the bottom and one can get into a later shipment. Nowdays companies like Brinks roll the coins so they can mix them or have some in inventory so you might find stragglers mixed in from other months.

Big doubled dies if noticed get removed. The 55 DDO die might only have been used to make a few thousand coins before they saw it. Then some are a mystery, the big 58 DDO has only a few known but they are 2 different die states so somehow they must have caught most before they were shipped but a few got out.