A fantastic find - 1923-S Peace in MS-64 with ghost / halo and doubling

This year I completed my ungraded XF/AU set of Liberty Peace Dollars, and started on a rather daunting collection of MS-64 grade to complement the set. MS64 was about as daunting a task as I could afford in the complete set.

I usually collect at shows, but I had a bunch of Ebay Bucks to spend, and put them into a 1923-S in MS64 online. Much to my amazement it arrived today, and the first thing I noticed was an extra "band" along the back of the neck. I started examining in more detail, and found a pretty clear doubling on the neck and on the 3.

So I started getting closer and closer with the camera on my mobile phone (Yeah, I'm goofing off at work while on a conference call). I started seeing the halo on both sides. I can see the ghost/halo of both the Eagle and Lady Liberty on the opposite sides! It's very clear and apparent, I will get better pictures up in the next day or two once I get the good camera set back up.

I know there is a bit of a difference in mechanical doubling and true DDO, but I think the ghost/halo images on both sides are clear - even in the poor pictures below.

I'd love feedback, comments, etc. It's listed as a standard MS64 by NGC, and I'm almost amazed that they didn't catch this!

I'm excited, and I'm going to have to wait until the next coin show to have someone with trained eyes give it a second look. But right now I feel like I got a great deal on a very rare specimen!

 

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I can't see the effect, but you are describing a clashed die

 

The halo of Lady Liberty is very apparent on the Reverse image. You (or at least I) can clearly see the ghost/halo of the upside down Lady Liberty on the reverse.

You should see the ray that touches the eagle's beak cutting through the edge of her hair, and the chin showing right below the first U in PLURIBUS. Better pictures will be up before Monday.

I will start reading on die clashes. Thank you!

 

as you described, it is a die clash

 

I outlined the ghost on the reverse.

 

Here , play match the picture to the ones that say "clash" in the Vam title.
There are about 43 of them.

Use this one to start,maybe you'll get lucky.

http://www.vamworld.com/1923-S+Clashed+Die+Attribution

Then move on to these if you don't match.

http://www.vamworld.com/1923-S+VAMs

 

I looked at these. What I see is that the image ghost from each opposite side is showing through, and the metal on each opposite side is fatigued and pressed out. It's as if there was too much pressure on the image and it "pushed" through the other side of the coin.

It's hard to capture this on my phone camera through the slab plastic - but it's very apparent to the naked eye in person.

I see evidence of doubling in several places on the obverse, and the reverse shows Lady Liberty's head being outlined very clearly in fatigued metal.

After reading about a clash - it doesn't appear this is a clash. This looks like there was a lot of pressure that pushed the image through to the other side of the coin.

I think I'll visit a coin shop tomorrow and get a second set of eyes on it. As I look at the coin more, I find all kinds of weird things. There's some sort of crack in the "L" in Liberty. See attached picture.

 

Clash or not, she's a beauty!!!

 

Yep - that's one ghostly image - thanks for outlining

 

Another cause of "ghosting" is progressive indirect design transfer, PIDT for short. This happens a lot on wheat cents, but I don't know if it happened on dollar coins, or if it's even possible, considering the thickness of the planchets. See here:

http://www.error-ref.com/progressive-indirect-design-transfer/

 

Jay, thank you! This is exactly what I see! I don't know that this is the cause, but right now it's the closest description to what I see. The images from each opposite side push through the metal in a halo effect.

Can't wait to get a decent lens on it.

 

Even with your outline, it is not jumping out at me. I don't have a very good imagination so maybe I'm just blind to it. This site has so many "look what I just found", that I can't see or find; it causes me to never collect these type of coins. Good luck and let us know how it goes.