Hardy Index System added to Glossary

**willbrooks** · 08-08-2015

Thank you to JC for his work writing this entry. With all of the recent interest in die breaks, I think this makes a fine entry. I also made a few other edits in the glossary that I had been meaning to do, but if there is something I told you I would do and have forgotten, please remind me. Thanks. JC, let me know if I made any contextual errors in the entry during the editing process. Thank you.

Hardy Index System: A schematic method for identifying and classifying BIEs and other LIBERTY die breaks. It was developed by Howard O. Hardy for the BIE Oddity Collectors Guild. The index was first applied to over 1800 illustrations of Liberty die breaks drawn by John Gedko. In 1972, a publication called the “BIE Handbook” edited by Howard O Hardy was released using the system. An explanation of the Hardy Index System can be found on page 21 of the BIE Handbook. Here is an example taken from the BIE Handbook for a 1999-S Lincoln cent.
1. 99S-4CL+7 The year of the coinage.
2. 99S-4CL+7 The mint of manufacture.
3. 99S-4CL+7 The die break locator ( 1L2I3B4E5R6T7Y8 ).
4. 99S-4CL+7 The delimitation letter. (An indicator of the height/size of the die break)
5. 99S-4CL+7 The die break position letter. (An indicator of the left/right position between the 2 letters)
6. 99S-4CL+7 The extension indicator.
7. 99S-4CL+7 The variation serial number.

Thank you to forum member 2old for this entry.