1909-s vdb and 1909-s

[Justafarmer]

It is generally accepted that 4 known obverse dies were utilized in striking the 484,000 1909-S VDB cents. This was a production run encompassing a very short time frame.

How many coin presses did the San Francisco Mint have in operation at the time?
Were the cents struck on 4 different presses simultaneously?

Anyway that averages to 121,000 stikes per obverse die leaving each with a substantial remaining production life of maybe 300,000 to 400,000 (possibly even greater) strikes each.

After the transition to the new reverse the mint struck an additional 1,825,000 cents. A short run in itself.

So were the VDB obverse dies also retired with the old reverse dies or transitioned and paired with the new reverse dies? If transitioned these dies would represent a significant amount of the 1909-S production. These 4 dies plus the 2 known RPM's could account for the entire 1909-S production run.

Has anyone done a study on this?

[coppercoins]

Two of the four 1909S VDB obverse dies are uncommon - one of them is very scarce. Most of the coins were struck using the two most common die pairings.

I have found no evidence that any of these four obverse dies were kept in production after the reverse dies were changed, but it would not surprise me at all to learn that this was true.

Lincoln cent dies lasted a maximum of 750,000 - 1,000,000 strikes per die while striking bronze cents. This figure is based on the Philadelphia presses. I don't know how San Francisco operated and whether their presses were different.

I have no idea how many presses they simultaneously ran.

[Roller]

Where can description or images of the two rare/scarce ones be found?

[coppercoins]

I'm not sure where they can be found. Their scarcity is a supposition based on a study I conducted over a period of about a year comparing every coin I could find for sale in which the particular obverse die could be determined. I believe the uncommon one is commonly listed as "die #3" and the scarce one i listed as "die #4" in references that list all four.

Of the couple hundred coins I included in my study only one coin was of the scarcest die.

I plan to flesh out this study completely with the publication of my new site and the book I will publish thereafter.