Repunched mintmarks (RPMs) are being added to the shopping cart.
We have hundreds of Repunched mint marks and we hope to have a good amount of repunched mint marks available for the 2022 holiday season.
Most repunched mintmarks we carry in stock are brilliant uncirculated and range in years from 1938 to 1964. We have a wide selection of repunched mintmarks, but we do not have them all, nor do we have them in all grades.
Here is a list of the types of Repunched mint marks we have to offer:
- Third party graded, certified, attributed and slabbed repunched mintmarks.
- Raw, attributed repunched mintmarks.
- Raw not attributed repunch mintmarks.
Repunched mintmark want list
Do you have a want list of individual repunched mintmarks that you need?
We specialize in Lincoln cents, but occasionally do get other coins which have repunched mintmarks like Morgan Dollars, Franklin and Kennedy halves, Washington quarters, Roosevelt dimes and Jefferson nickels. To send us your want list, please email it to us at the email address provided at the bottom of this post.
What is a Repunched mint mark (RPM) ?
- The Mint started using mint marks (letters) in the early 1800’s to identify the various branch mints at which coins were being struck. Prior to 1990, the mint mark was hand punched into the working dies that would be striking the coins. It was the last portion of the design to be placed on the die.
- These mint mark letters are as follows: D for Denver, S for San Francisco, C for Charlotte (gold coins only), CC for Carson City, D for Dahlonega (gold coins only), O for New Orleans, P for Philadelphia, and W for West Point. If a coin had NO mintmark, it was assumed to come from Philadelphia
- A die maker would take a thin steel rod (punch) that had the mint mark engraved on one end and hold it in place on the working die where the mint mark was to be applied. Using a mallet he tapped an impression of the mint mark into the die.
- In some cases, the mint worker may have done a glancing blow from the mallet to the mint mark rod and it did not leave a satifactory mintmark on the working die. In that case, it was necessary to strike the punch more than once with the mallet in order to leave a satisfactory impression of the mint mark on the working die.
- If multiple punchings were slightly off, a Re-punched Mintmark (RPM) was created. If the mint worker deemed the mintmark was satisfactory for mint standards, the die would be added to a coin press. This working die with the Re-punched mintmark is eventually added to the coin press and it will being making coins until the end of its service life.
Since mid 1990’s – RPM’s are a thing of the past
- The RPM and over mint mark (OMM) varieties are two die variety types that the Mint has successfully eliminated from modern day coinage. In 1990 and 1991 the Mint began applying the mint mark for business strikes (circulating coins) to the master die. This means that there was no longer a need to apply the mint mark by hand, thus eliminating the potential for human error and the age of Re-Punched mintmarks came to a halt.
- After 1994 the mint mark was applied directly to the original model for all U.S. coins thus ending the RPM and OMM era.
- The last known Lincoln Cent RPM was created in 1989. That was 33 years ago. There are many people pulling copper cents out of circulation for copper, so this lessens the possibility of finding an RPM as well.
Learn more about repunched mintmarks
This quest is a work in progress. Should we have a major update to this story, we will add a post on this https://MintErrors.org website.
Keep an eye on our STORE area on this website as well at https://TheCoinStore.org
