I just acquired a jefferson nickel that was apparently double struck. The profile, at least the back of the head, appears doubled and on the reverse, the upper part of Monticello appears doubled. Also there appears to be an extra step. My question is: How does only a certain part of a coin get double struck and not the rest. The lettering and date are sharp and clear.
Folks I can't emphasize enough how much you should subscribe to coin magazines such as Coin World and Numismatic News. At one time or another - just about every numismatic subject is covered in an article with pics. The magazines are a great source of knowledge. And Coin World is even on-line and allows you to key word search past issues. Use it Meanwhile - to see and understand mechanical doubling - Types of Coin Errors
My question is: How does only a certain part of a coin get doubled and not the rest. The lettering and date are sharp and clear.
I wish that there were an easy way to explain this, but I am afraid that die striking is a bit complicated to explain. It is possible for some areas to exhibit doubling and other areas to be perfectly fine. All forms of doubling fall under this same process. If you visit the Ken Potter website http://koinpro.tripod.com/ he has many wonderful explainations that are easy to understand.
Strike doubling is caused by a "twist" of the die when it hits the planchet thus the relief area in the design on the coin shears away causing that "look" of strike doubling. Knowing this, it is usually the deepest part of the die that is affected first (highest relief of the coin). Becuase Mint marks were punched by hand alot of them had a deeper relief than the rest of the coin, thus an affected Mint mark while the rest of the coin remains unscathed. This is also why we see spuratic strike doubling on one side of a coin or another in different areas hinging on the relief of certain areas... Hope that made cents. For more information on doubled dies and other forms of doubling click here
jtwax Thanks for your "cents" The link was mucho informative. Sooooo, I'm guessing that a "doubled die" is pretty well known and since mine doesn't seem to appear anywhere in the literature, GDJMSP is correct and it's a case of mechanical doubling. Is this also considered an "error" coin? The writing on the 2x2 the coin is in mentions "Double profile & Dome, Extra Step, Whiskers" What are whiskers? see the link below for scans
