There were 6,500,850,000 Lincoln cents struck in Philadelphia in 1994. How many die pairs do you think were used? ~ Chris
usually Mechanical Doubling. a slight wiggle of the die shifts it slightly and you get those flat steps, on either side.
This is the DDR for this date http://www.coppercoins.com/lincoln/diestate.php?date=1994&die_id=1994p1dr018&die_state=eds where the outer devices/lettering were affected. You'll note that the spread is CCW (i.e., rotated) where on your coin, the spread mimics Class 2 doubling (distorted). As noted by your fellow enthusiasts, your specimen is classic mechanical doubling which isn't actual doubling (the doubling is in the die that strikes the coin but the coin you have was struck by a normal die). The wobble of the die/equipment created the shelf-like 'doubling' appearance.
No, but I don't expect that the OP will raise that issue, anyway, because he probably has me on "IGNORE". ~ Chris
This MD is one of the worst problems for new collectors . It takes a long time for some of them to recognize the difference between MD and a real doubled die. I saw a ebay seller that had 58 coins for sale and most of them were listed as DDR and some were listed as DDR and DDO coins. All of them were the worthless forms of mechanical doubling except a 50 cent coin looked ok. I have never seen so much junk and beat up coins on there listed as errors. It would be really hard digging thru all the junk to try to find one worth buying.
I seen a lincoln that look like it's been run over a few times going for---are you ready?--$25000---not a good reference
Ehhh...as you've seen, I'm pretty patient with folks. Funny thing is that in the midst of this pandemic, I find that I'm extremely patient in the stores these days. That was definitely not me a month and a half ago. Perhaps the silver lining for me.
There are a few different types of Md . The coin the OP has here is the type that looks to be die ejection doubling . I believe this type occurs after the coins are struck while being ejected out between the dies. Notice the I in America , It looks like the top part of it has some metal pushed up above the rest of the level part of the I .in my opinion when struck by the die the letter I would have been level until being pushed into the die during ejection. When looking for doubled dies and someone finds one like this it is a sure sign to just pass it up and keep on looking.