What is die axis and why should I care?
Die axis is the alignment between the two dies used to produce a coin. Commonly we see either upright or 12 o’clock where the top of one side is the same as the top of the other (a hole drilled through the top of the obverse will come out through the top of the reverse) or inverted (6 o’clock) where the two dies are opposite (a hole drilled through the top of the obverse will come out through the bottom of the reverse). US coins are inverted. Some ancients used other axis alignments. The 5th century owls of Athens tend to be 3 o’clock or 9 o’clock. Many coins were randomly aligned so the statistic is of absolutely no importance. Some issues were so regular that a coin not following the pattern is probably fake. Value of this piece of information is greatly overrated.
