Definition

• Transfer Engraving.  Engraving a punch or die by means of a transfer lathe. Diesinkers would utilize the early form of the pantograph, then called a transfer lathe or portrait lathe, to reduce and cut into steel a bas-relief design intended to appear on a coin or medal. For the most part this was the device alone, often the portrait. Thus the engraver could prepare an oversize pattern, cast this in hard material and reduce this to the intended size he needed as a device punch. It would give him the liberty of using this punch as often as he needed. He would hub this device into a steel block, then to complete the die he would add lettering, dentiles and ornaments to form the border by punches. If he ruined a die during this step he could always hub the device into a new die block and start over.  See pantograph, reduction punch.

  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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