I know this was a hotly debated issue a while back. One of my new Christmas books tackles the issue of the 1942/1 Merc dime . " This class of hub doubling is one of the most interesting of all doubled dies. It is caused when 2 different hubs with different designs are used to create one die." "ALL examples of what people refer to as "overdates" in the twentieth century coin types are actually class 3 doubled dies. This includes the 1918/7-D nickel, the 1942/1 dime, and the 1943/2-P nickel." Charles D Daugherty, NLG Looking thru Lincoln Cents, 2nd addition I will now run and hide, doing my best drive by to cause more controversy and debate, while I sit back and watch the entertainment.encil: Jack
Jack- I think the cause was sorted out to everyone's agreement and the dispute was more whether to call it an "error" or a "variety".
"ALL examples of what people refer to as "overdates" in the twentieth century coin types are actually class 3 doubled dies. This includes the 1918/7-D nickel, the 1942/1 dime, and the 1943/2-P nickel." ''class 3 doubled dies,'' sounds like a variety of errors...perhaps all inclusive.
Well, not to drag up an old argument unnecessarily, but here's my take on it, as per the previous 1942/1 thread: My understanding is that the accepted definitions are something like "variety" is anything that is on the die itself, thus making multiple identical pieces possible (like any doubled die- they're all accepted to look exactly the same), whereas an "error" is a physical problem with the act of coining, making identical pieces impossible. Like a clipped planchet or a double strike- there's no chance two will be exactly the same. Clearly, not everyone chooses to make that distinction, such as eBay only having an "Error" catagory but not "Variety", or even here on cointalk where there is an "error forum" but not a "variety forum"... or maybe it's deliberate so that no one talks about varieties!
Error? Variety? I am personally not concerned about what it's called. One criterium for my collection is a coin be "a business strike that made it into circulation." That means I will have a 1942/41 in my collection. And a 1922 Plain. And a 1955DDO. What won't be included are coins like the 1895 Morgan. 1913 Liberty nickel. Proof coins in general (although I have some from my rookie days of collecting.) Of course this collecting criterium avoids a serious problem. No way could ever afford some of those coins.
That includes the 1943 copper, 1944 steel, 1917 DDO, 1934 DDO, 1944 D/S, 1946 S/D, etc. and when do I stop?
Sure does by my collecting criterium. That's one of the nice things about coin collecting, you can make you own rules about what you want to accumulate. "[W]hen do I stop?" When I can't afford the items. Just as an aside, I didn't even know 1944 "steelies" existed until 2-3 months ago. My favorite dealer had one for sale! He said it was highest grade known (it was an MS-61.) I didn't ask where he got it (auction? consignment?), nor did I ask what the price was. He just said it was in the 6-figure range. I don't ask about things like that since it's SO far out of my range that it has no meaning to me.
