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A. INTRODUCTION
Before plunging into our scheme for the organization of the Province of Canada reverse dies it is important for the reader to appreciate that all the reverse dies were sunk from a single punch. With continued use this punch suffered the usual deterioration of the letters and digits, (as did the obverse punch) but the reverse also lost pieces of the device (maple wreath): parts of three vine loops and part or all of several petioles (leaf stems). The delicate nature of Wyon’s rendition of the vine and petioles certainly played a major role in the reverse punch deterioration. Of course, whatever flaws were present on the punch at any given time were transferred to all the dies it sank, which between May 1858 and June 1859 ultimately totaled some 402 dies in the case of the reverse.
At the point the reverse punch was modified for sinking dies for 1859 (by grinding off the last 8 in the date) deterioration had already occurred in some parts of the device. For the purposes of this paper the most important of those sites were the stems to leaves 6 and 8 (completely gone), the stem to leaf 9 (2nd half broken off) and loop 7 (a small gap in the center). The leaves, stems and vine loops are numbered according to Rob Turner’s system, which is illustrated in Figure 1. [1] [2]
B. The Master Tools That Produced the 1859 Narrow 9 Cents
B1. The Matrix-Punch-Die System of Die Production
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[scheme showing production of punch and dies]
B2. State of the Punches at the Beginning of 1859 Die Production
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B3. Obverse Punch
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B2. State of the Punches at the Beginning of 1859 Die Production
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B3. Obverse Punch
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B4. Reverse Punch
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The Turner Provincial Cent Leaf Numbering System
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a
C. Continued Punch Deterioration During Die Production
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C1. Vine Loop 7 Gap Widening
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C1. Vine Loop 7 Gap Widening
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C2. Vine Loop 2 & Stem 10 Breakage
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C3. Timeline of 185- Cent Reverse Punch Deterioration
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D. Die Finishing and Defect Repair
D1. Re-punching Letters and Numerals
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D2. Minor Re-punches
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D3. Major Re-punches
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D4. Repair of Vine Loop 7 and Stem 8
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D5. Repair of Stem 9
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D6. Repair of Stem 10
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D7. Repair of Vine Loop 2
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D8. Errors in Finishing the Die Surface
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D9. File Marks
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D10. Overpolishing
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E. Die Changes With Storage or Use
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E1. Die Rust Marks
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E2. Die Breaks (Cracks)
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Progression of a die break with continued die use
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Photo 47 Obverse letters in reverse wreath
Multiple impressions of reverse wreath in obverse legend
E4. Die Chips & Misc. Gouges
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E4. Die Chips & Misc. Gouges
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E5. Die Collapses
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E6. Die Wear
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Photo 47 Distortion of obverse field
E7. Die Clogs
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E7. Die Clogs
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F. Replacement of Dies
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[scheme showing a sequence of die changes]
G. The Haxby System for the Attribution of the 1859 Dies
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G1. Grouping the Reverse Dies
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[Reverse Group Sorting Scheme]
G2. Sorting the Obverses
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G3. Sorting the Reverses
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G4. Die States
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