british die making

Here is an interesting video on die making and hub making (or as they call them "tooling dies" and "working punches"), which are of course used to strike coinage. Knowing the die making process is important for collectors since that is how we can understand how mint errors occur.

Dies which are improperly manufactured, defective, or improperly used in the press will result in die varieties such as cuds, die cracks, misplaced mintmark, doubled dies, die clashes, and the like. Improper die installation is typically the reason "mule" errors occur (mismatched dies in a press.)

It is therefore important that collectors learn as much as possible about every area of coin manufacture if they are to understand their die varieties and mint error coins.