i got this Indian last week. I’m not sure if it has pm damage, or a multiple strike or something. It’s got some environmental damage and has been cleaned for sure. Just looking for some input from more experienced people than the experts on Facebook groups who say every coin posted is the result of pmd or cleaning. There is visible numbers on top of the date, letters on the reverse, the shield is pretty messed up and there is random doubling or tripling pretty much all around. Thanks
I am, by no means an expert on Indian Head Cents, but I do see the obvious environmental damage. However, what is going on with the shield is out of my scope. It's still early, so I'm sure someone will chime in eventually, But do always be prepared for the PMD answer as this coin certainly has a lot of it. But not the shield part. As far as Facebook goes, I am only subscribed to James Porters "Coin Seeker" page. There are way too many other pages there that are of no help at all. While you are waiting for replies here you might want to join that group. Very nice people there. James and Marilyn Keeny are both experts on the 2009 Lincoln series.
If you look closely at the words one cent you can see the letters slightly shifted the same way the shield is
Yeah, that thing took one hell of a jolt when it was struck. Look at ONE CENT. Those two images, the one image underlying the other, aren't from a die, but are distortions from the strike. That's what moved everything over on that reverse. In die-doubling, those images aren't distorted like that. They're intact, but lying slightly ajar from one another. That was one violent strike that did that, and it's a "keeper," for that reason, alone. It's as extreme as these eyes have ever seen on one of those old cents.
It definitely shows evidence of double striking on both sides of the coin, but I'm not sure if the second strike was done in the press or with "soft dies" as PSD.
What is a soft die? Something to add to the list of people’s fraudulent coin games? The only way I can picture this happening on purpose would be taking 2 vice style squeezed coins and squeezing this in between them.
Very close. If you take a coin and squeeze it into a brass or possibly bronze plate it creates an incuse image of the coin as on a die. The squeezing also work hardens the brass. This brass "did" can then be used like a die to create a raised image on another coin, but the work hardened brass die is still nowhere near as hard as a steel die would be (Hence why it is called a soft die) so the raised image tends to be weaker and less distinct. Also being softer it does not flatten out the design on the coin it is being squeezed onto. (This also creates a second weaker incuse image in the brass die, so you can only use a soft die one or two times before it is destroyed. Then you have to start with a new brass plate.)
