Reducing machine

A reducing machine was a type of pantograph lathe used until the 21st century to manufacture coin dies.

Prior to the machine's introduction, designs were cut by hand into metal dies by a specialist engraver.

The reducing machine changed this by allowing artists to create designs on a larger surface area and then have them scaled down and cut into a die automatically.

From 1836 to 1867 the US Mint operated the first die-engraving pantograph invented by a now forgotten French inventor whom the machine is named after.

[1] During the mid 1800s Englishman C. J. Hill developed a variation of the Contamin whereby the electrotype was traced horizontally using a treadle.