1956 Aussie penny--dramatic DDR.

Here's a 1956 Y. (Perth) penny I found a while back. At first, I didn't know what to make of the marks at the base of AUSTRALIA (arrows), until I did an overlay. Clearly, the hub was rotated quite dramatically to make this doubled die--the point of the L confirms the direction. That only the bases of the letters remain might be explained by die making processes: a conical die blank was used, which is why the letters are strongest towards the center, and the rest may have been polished away. In terms of rotation, this is the strongest doubled die I have found. I have looked but so far, I have not found a second example.




Doubling is also seen on PENNY; it's clearer which letters form the doubling.



The designer's initial, KG, is doubled too.

 

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I love the overlay you used for demonstration purposes...nice find!

 

I think this happens with aussie coins a lot. I have a 1962 one like this, but there are heaps of that year. Must have been something with the minting process. Look the BETH II and her nose and ribbons.

 

You're right--the legends have as much spread on the doubling. The doubled nose is great too. I keep looking for that one.

 

very nice find

 

Mass produce anything and you will get minor manufacturing errors.

Just chuck it away and keep looking for a perfect one.

 

Albeit a minor error, it's how he detected it on this coin. That's what I find fascinating.

 

minor?

you are kidding, of course?

 

This is why you have to not always think an answer given on this forum is the "answer". By this reasoning, all the 1955 doubled die cents should be trashed because they aren't 'perfect', as well as other valued coins that are errors or varieties.

 

This focus on trivial errors is like going to the Grand Canyon and examining it with a magnifying glass. There is a world of interesting stuff you do not need a magnifying glass to appreciate.
There is nothing of beauty, history or general interest in the fact that machines occasionally malfunction and tools get damaged.
There is no money that you could spend on almost invisible errors that could not be spent on far more interesting coins (and better looking) coins.

 

Afantiques, do you see the white arrow? That confirms the direction of the seismic shift when this die was hubbed. Pretty cool, isn't it?

 

do you see the white arrow? That confirms the direction of the seismic shift when this die was hubbed. Pretty cool, isn't it?

It truly compares in majesty with the Indian subcontinental plate forcing up the Himalaya Mountains.

 

@afantiques Beauty is not only in the large canyons or mountains. Quite often beauty can be found right in front of us. The dew on the grass blade. The quiet fall of the leaves in autumn. Some people prefer to buy coins for coins. And some prefer to look for the small errors. Let each have his own and be at peace with it.

 

Each to their own pleasure, but I think preoccupation with errors is peering at the ground instead of looking up at the stars. It just seems even weirder than may other aspects of coin collecting.

 

Well now you're getting it, at least, what happened, here. This was no striking machine error, it was when this die was hubbed. This error repeated on every coin struck with this die, and nobody noticed it, until now. And, it's visible. You're just not an error collector, that's all. I'm good with that. Get off our backs, we collect errors, we appreciate them.

 

You do realize this is the "Error Forum"? Each to his own; I happen to find coins like this fascinating, as they help me understand the manufacturing process. If everything were done perfectly, every single time, we wouldn't bother to learn about it.

Well, I'm glad that everyone isn't looking for coins such as the IHC DDO below. Even so, it's in high demand/hard to find. These go for about 25X the normal, "perfect' 1887.

 

You do realize this is the "Error Forum"? Each to his own; I happen to find coins like this fascinating, as they help me understand the manufacturing process. If everything were done perfectly, every single time, we wouldn't bother to learn about it.

I know it is an error forum. But not all posts have to be pro-error. I have nothing against a love of mistakes, but there is a lot more to coin collecting than the tiny details of the manufacturing process, something that was pretty well finalised around 1665.

 

Here, see if this one works...

 

Well...if you feel the need to opine at length on the subject, you could start your own thread. You’re sort of barking up the wrong tree on my thread.

Since you raise the point, the manufacturing process was hardly 'finalised around 1665'. There are notable details that collectors who study with their magnifying glasses understand. The processes of engraving, die making, and coining is changing to this day; a few changes are detailed below. I’ll note that a lot of these advances allowed coins to be better struck, more detailed, and thereby more aesthetically pleasing to collectors. And with each new process, there are new die varieties associated with it.

• Portraits and other details once engraved by hand, individually into each die were replaced by punches to impart consistent details to each die, and thereby into each coin.
• Collars added to coining presses now struck coins with a consistent edge/shape. Edge milling/lettering discouraged the practice of shaving down precious-metal coins--a big problem since ancient times.
• Individual letter, design, and date punches gave way to grouped punches for the legends and dates, which made die making more efficient
• Hubs were introduced that incorporated all the design elements, replacing the tedious use of individual punches. Hubbing dies became the norm towards the mid/late 1800s.
• Screw presses were replaced by the mechanized hydraulic press, allowing more coins to be struck and with higher pressure and better detail.
• Dates once punched (or engraved) individually into the die were replaced by logotype punches consisting of all the digits.
• Galvanos and reducing lathes replaced cutting a master hub at actual size. This enabled finer details to be imparted to the hubs, the dies, and to the final coin.
• In the 20th C. dates and mint marks were included on the hub, which eliminated the need to add these to individual dies.

Collectors who study die varieties learn about these processes. It helps me understand why coins of specific eras look as they do. Each time period has an intrinsic beauty due to the hand work or mechanical processes involved.

Where one collector may see “mistakes”, others see a charm in coins that were made from dies engraved by hand, such as this 2 Skilling coin from Norway:


When coin production became more mechanized, these ‘mistakes’ became far scarcer—and to variety collectors, often more valuable. It is partly an interest in the process, such as this 1888/7 overdate, and the scarcity of the variety. Where the “perfect” coin is only worth $20, this one is worth $20,000. That’s another aspect of variety collecting—hunting for hidden treasures.

 

It is one of my favorite World Coin Doubled Dies - It's been about 10 years since I saw one in-hand, but I think it was found fairly quickly primarily due to the hysteria with the 56Y Mule coins from Australia. These are on a few dealers inventory price sheet (VGish usually around $25?) - there are many threads on this in the last 10-15 years on various boards, but none have pics remaining on them. It is high in my coolness factor list though.