There is one set of a Dime, Quarter and Half struck by Martha Washington dies that are permanently housed in the Smithsonian Institute, embedded in blocks of lucite. According to United States Pattern and Related Issues, by Andrew W. Pollock III, “the only trial pieces purported to have survived metallurgical testing in 1965 were the Dime, Quarter Dollar, and Half Dollar equivalent strikes in copper-nickel clad over copper.”

Mike Byers’ discovery of the Martha Washington Test Piece on a copper-zinc Cent planchet struck 10% off-center with a uniface reverse was a front page Coin World article on August 7th, 2000. In a response to the Martha Washington Test Piece that he discovered, the Mint announced that “the dies are available to the Mint’s metal and blank vendors for testing.”

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Content courtesy of Mike Byers MintErrorNews.com and used with permission.

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