A missing die ring is found
(aka why we need more databases and spreadsheets of elongated coins!
Cindy Calhoun, TEC 3467

One of the elongateds included in this issue was a donation from Alan Hubbard. Butthere is more to the story than just a donation, there were mysteries to be solved! InJune, Alan purchased a die ring on eBay. He doesn't have a rolling machine but thoughtit would be a great piece of Elongated Ephemera for his collection. He sent me a photoof the United States Mint Philadelphia image (the coin in this issue) from the die ringand asked me if I knew anything about the design. I asked a bunch of additionalquestions about the other images, size of the ring, initials, etc.

Fortunately, I have a Frank Brazzell spreadsheet that one of our members developed(thanks Jason). I was able to quickly search and find the United States Mint elongated.I then confirmed the numbering in the hard copy of the Brazzell catalog. The UnitedStates Mint image is one of the five images listed in that catalog as Roll 596, done forRay Dillard. Next was a check of Ray's catalog, which listed the image as DIL-125, with596-B below (the catalog number from the Brazzel catalog NOTE- I will start usingFBxxx-x for this article although the part of the numbering isn't in Ray's catalog).The image was done in 1988. Another image shown on that roll is on the die ring Alanpurchased, David Rittenhouse Director of the Mint. In Ray's copy of the Brazzellcatalog, Ray wrote that these five images were on two different rings. (NOTE: TheBrazzell catalog has with the images. Although it may be thought those imageswere on the same die rings, that often is not the case.) The David Rittenhouse imageis cataloged as DIL-127 (FB596-C), also done in 1988. Two images down, and two togo.

The die's next image was U.S. Mint Bicentennial. Again, quickly found on thespreadsheet then confirmed in the Brazzel catalog as #486 (but listed with 3 otherimages not on the die ring being researched). In the Dillard catalog this MintBicentennial image is DIL-106 (FB 486-A) and was done in 1987.

The fourth image on the ring was a bit harder to figure out. It was coin images with noadditional wording, meaning I couldn't find it using the spreadsheet search because wedidn't know what the images were. A page-by-page review of pictures in Ray's catalogturned up the image of Half Disme (NO, it's not a typo) (Heads & Tails) as DIL-180(FB836-A) which was done in 1990. All four images identified, but there were stillmysteries...

There was a large gouge on the die ring before the Half Disme image. I went throughRay's physical die records (stored in 50+ boxes in my office) and found a letter Raywrote on December 10, 1990 to Craig Whitford. Apparently all four designs were donefor Craig over a number of years. The letter from Ray was about rolling the Half Dismeimage on silver quarters for Craig. Apparently the original rolling of that image was ondimes, so the image size was made smaller to fit better on dimes. Here are excerptsfrom Ray's letter to Craig:

Obviously Ray wasn't thrilled with how the silver coins came out. But his letter providesinformation I thought would be helpful to current rollers who may be attempting to rollsilver coins. It also solves the mystery of the gouge on the die ring. The only remainingmystery... why wasn't this die ring with the rest of Ray's die rings? Who did he send itto, and why? The eBay seller was no help... if you have any information, please pass italong.

Over the next few years, you will receive the other images from this die ring as insertsfor the newsletter. You will notice that each of the images will have an engraved star(see previous article about engraving a star on Ray's die rings). I'll be rolling the HalfDisme image last... not sure how it's going to roll on a cent with that extra starter slot!

What this research taught me is that we really do need to develop more databases andspreadsheets of elongated coins to make research easier. TEC is working on updatingYesterday's Elongateds with the help of a number of our members who have beenentering information into a spreadsheet developed by our TEC Editor, Sandy. We arealso piloting digital catalog entry of Ray's coins (including expanding to include the last10 years of his designs), entry of the hundreds of designs I've done, and starting oncapturing the designs made by Brad Ream. We are always looking for members willingto do some data entry on these projects or other related projects. Wouldn't it be great iffuture generations could go to one place to research and find information about anyelongated! Probably not in my lifetime, but I hope it happens eventually! Let's take astep in that direction. If you have spreadsheets of private rollers, other catalogs, etc.,that you are willing to share, please let us know!

Craig Whitford writes:

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