Part II: Die Varieties

Defective Punch

Definition – A punch that transfers a malformed letter, numeral or design element to a master or working die.

Defective punch transfer                                    Normal punch transfer

The punch used for the 2 digit in the 1862 Indian Head cent, seen above, has a raised area on the inside of that digit. This area should be at field level. To date there have been 4 working dies from this date with this defect, Snow 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d.