Definition

• Canceled Die.  After a coin or medal issue is completed, and to guarantee no unauthorized specimens can be struck, dies are sometimes canceled by defacing (or destruction). Coin dies are severely treated when canceled: the face containing the design can be entirely ground off, melted by intense flame or otherwise obliterated. Medal dies are usually defaced with a thin line or lines ground into the face of the die through the design. Any medal struck from such dies would show these defacing marks and are called struck from canceled dies (as evidence they have, indeed, been canceled). Sometimes canceled dies are then preserved in archives of a museum. The medal illustrated shows not only a line ground into the face of a die but also a line of lettering sunk into this channel as well.

  excerpted with permission from

  An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

  For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

  COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

  Roger W. Burdette, Editor

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