Pennies... have you ever noticed......

[fiatboy]

Over the last 40 years, the Mint has been gradually reducing the amount of relief, the difference between high point and low point on a coin's design. This isn't just from the wearing out of dies; new dies are made that have slightly less relief than the previous ones. This is done purely for cost of production concerns. Lower relief coins can be struck just once, whereas higher relief coins need to be struck twice (hence all those double-die errors). By cutting in half the number of times a strike must be made, the Mint can avoid lots of wear on their machines and dies, and can make coins even faster.

That is true. And remember that double strike circulation strikes do exist. In fact, some of them, such as the 1964 cent, are extremely rare.

 

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