Ok my error gurus... What am I seeing here??? Longacre doubling? Excessive die wear? What is going on around the bust??
I am not sure of the Longacre as normally described. Generally Longacre's was described as doubling appearance from the logotype which added the date, stars, lettering, but the central device is not mentioned. As most think, the doubling effect was from the base edge of the characters on the logotype going too deep and producing the secondary edge. I can find no reference of the head being anything but engraved on the master die, and thus something other than Longacre's. Since the transfer from hub to working die, could have been too deep, it more likely produced the flattened edge closest to the device and the 'splash' of metal outside from under the edge, producing an effect similar to Longacre's . Just my regular contrary self
Longacre doubling can come on the central devices as well. I do think it must be some form of Longacres doubling as it is found on both sides of the device. At first I wondered about possibly a double striking in the collar with some movement of the obv die between strikes but it just doesn't look right for that.
