Before a single coin is minted, a number of steps must occur, from legislation to design reviews, to prototypes and finally to approvals. These steps will not concern us here. We want to look at the minting process, the process after all the design decisions have been made and approvals received.
After the design has been approved, then a master hub of the design is created and approved. The design on this master hub is the design intended for the coin as interpreted by the mint staff. This is the standard by which all actual coins should be compared. Significant deviations from the standard are the result of errors in the minting process.
The minting process provides a natural division of varieties into two groups. First, the dies must be created. This provides an opportunity for a Die Production Variety. If a die does not precisely match the original master hub, then the die will mint a variety of the design, not the original design. Undoubtedly, some imperfect dies were discarded, never to mint any coins. On the other hand, by using an imperfect die, the mint provides approval of the varieties produced. Depending on the specifics of the Die Production Variety, the variety may be a Doubled Die, a Re-Punched Mint mark or an Over Mint Mark.
After the dies are created, they are used to mint coins. As coins are being minted, we have an opportunity for a Coin Production Variety. However, not all coin manufacturing mistakes lead to varieties. Some mistakes lead to just errors – a machine malfunction, such as a coin minted off-center or struck multiple times. In these cases, no one at the mint intended that the coins look like those producted. However, if a mint workman has to modify one of the dies to remedy a problem, then they intend the coins to be minted with the modified die. By placing the die in service, they give explicit approval to the use of this modified die to mint coins. The coins are the result of a human decision, not a machine malfunction. The coins produced are varieties.
Since the workman can’t add material to the die, he must remove material from the die, likely by abrading the die to remove a feature or possibly re-engraving a feature to restore it. Both of these actions require removing material from the die, abrasion. If the workman makes a significant change to the die, then the coins minted will be Abraded Die Varieties. For Buffalo nickels this includes Two Feather, Missing Initial, and Three and a Half Legged Buffalo varieties.
We’ll use this division of Die Production Varieties and Abraded Die Varieties to look more closely at the Lesser Known Buffalo nickel varieties.
The distinction between an error and a variety can be subtle and has not always been made consistently. Any coin produced by the mint that does not faithfully reproduce the approved design is an error. The mint has not performed its assigned job successfully. If the coin produced is an error but it faithfully reproduces the design on the dies that struck it, then the coin is a variety. Some person at the mint took steps which caused the die to have its design and to mint coins. In that sense the die was “approved” by the mint. The equipment worked as intended and the coin was produced. This approval by the mint is one reason varieties are interesting.