Coinsandcanada.com

I picked up a 1891 on eBay and was surprised on all the die deterioration noted on the coin.

Yes, they used the dies until they were ready to break in pieces. If you think about how thin the little cogs of metal would be on the master used to strike and make the dies, you can see how many serifs broke off. Rather than make new dies they, would handpunch letters and numbers into the dies to make up for the blank areas where the serifs would be. In the later Vicky large cents, you had die deterioration, machine/mechanical doublings and repunches. From 1881/2 til the early 90's the Obverse dies took a beating, but they lasted 2-3 times longer than the Reverse design with the maple leaves and stems. Your photos show why it's neat to collect Vickies as her portrait changed and the mint kept hammering out pennies.