Hubbing Dies in the Earliest days of the United States Mint

Hubbing is the processof creating multipledies that bear the sameelements. A hub is araised punch used toimpress a design into a die.Though the terms"punch" and "hub"often are used interchangeably,for thepurpose of this articlethe difference betweenthem is a matter ofsize. A punch is smalland features a singleletter, numeral, leaf orother ornament; a hubcarries a larger device,such as a head, wreathor eagle, or even allthe images that appearon one side ofa coin.

Hubbing is thought tohave begun in the United Stateswith the creation of obverse andreverse dies for some Connecticut state coppers. The firsttime the U.S. Mint used a hubfor the main device was believedto have been in 1793 forthe Liberty Cap cents.

Since at least the late 19thcentury, numismatists have remarkedon the artistic similar itiesbetween the 1792 disme patternand the 1793 half cent, suggestingthat they were executed by the same hand, namely Voigt's.Recently, I delved into this mystery.Could the resemblance bemore than coincidental?

By overlaying the designs inAdobe Photoshop®, I determinedthat the disme and halfcentobverses were, in fact, createdfrom the same hub. Figure 1shows the obverses side-by-side.The similarities between thefaces are obvious, but the treatmentof the hair differs greatly.Figure 2 shows an overlay of thetwo coins. (The disme is renderedin yellow, and the half centis reproduced in blue.) It is obviousthat the two faces matchperfectly, including the eyes,noses, lips, cheeks, foreheads,chins, necks and shapes of thebust lines.

The main variance between thedies (and probably the reasonnobody has noticed their exactmatch) is the hair.My findings show conclusivelythat a single hub was usedfor both the 1792 disme patternand 1793 half cent obverses.Figure 3 shows how that hubprobably looked. Although thehair was not defined, the approximateshape of Liberty's head can be determined.

My findings show conclusivelythat a single hub was usedfor both the 1792 disme patternand 1793 half cent obverses.Figure 3 shows how that hubprobably looked. Although thehair was not defined, the approximateshape of Liberty'shead can be determined.

The question remains: Whywould Voigt have prepared ahub for the disme pattern in1792? We can't know for sure,but the simplest explanation isthat he was experimenting.Voigt must have known that thehubbing process could producea number of nearly identicaldies and simply gave it a try.Since he had successfully madeand used a hub, I wonder whyhe reverted to hand- engravingthe Chain cent obverses. Ofcourse, I can only speculate, butperhaps he was concerned thata larger hub might not be effectual.How ever, Voigt obviouslydidn't hesitate for long, as hedeveloped a hub for the Wreathcent obverse within days of theChain cent minting and re-usedthe leftover hub from the previousyear's disme pattern for thehalf cents.

In retrospect, Henry Voigtdeserves immense credit. Acceptinga temporary positionas the U.S. Mint's chief coiner,he experimented with hubbingas early as 1792. He truly was a remarkable and talented man,without whom the mint mightnot have succeeded.

For more information about the American Numismatic Association, see:
https://www.money.org/