Sticky Dies? What caused this?

This has probably been addressed before, but I am new here and wouldn't know what to search for. I have seen this phenomenon on coins from different countries, but it seems to be especially common on modern Spanish ones. This fairly extreme example is on a 1983 5 Peseta. What causes the outlining of letters and other devices?

 

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Great pics! What are you using for your close-ups?

 

I'm just holding my digital camera to the eyepiece of a microscope (10x or 30 x magnification).

 

Cool! I use the eyepiece of an old video camera the same way.

 

I would call it die deterioration. Others will have their opinion.

 

I think the cause is worn dies. I have a few coins that have the same effect. Most of them are foreign coins.

 

Worn dies & MD.

 

Old worn out dies. The die has been crumbling around the letters.

 

Longacre doubling?

 

Seems to be Die Deterioration, but I don't know a hoot about foreign coinage or if any other country had dies prepared for Longacre doubling. Have fun with this...

 

Forget Longacre doubling. i don't even know where that came from

It is a coin struck by an extremely worn die. I've seen that many times and you are right, it seems to come up a lot on coins of Spain.

Thanks,
Bill

 

In Bill we trust!