Double dated Bicentennial Quarter

I have a circulated bicentennial quarter with fairly clear double date. Can someone point me to a value? Thanks in advance.

 

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If the double date is 1776 1976, it's normal.
In order to tell if the dates are actually doubled, we need to see well focused and tightly cropped photos.

 

All I see is machine doubling.

Chris

 

Thanks Chris. But I'm a new collector and have no idea what "machine doubling" means. While I am trying to learn would you guys mind explaining a little. Thanks

 

I see a coin that was struck by deteriorated dies and suffers from over 40 years of circulation.

 

Sorry the photos do not show what I am asking about well. In actuality the "1776" has obvious double numbers; especially the "776" with the doubling being south/east. And the "1976" has varying degrees of doubling, mostly south. Just wanted to know if a coin with this description had any value. Thanks for your input.

 

Go back and see this:

 

WOW.

 

Take a rubber stamp - in your mind - and stamp the design onto a clean sheet of paper. Then, offset the stamp and hit the paper again. What you will see are two exact copies of the same thing, one full set of each stamp. There will be no blurring between features, corners will stand out unconnected, and the serifs of the letters will be cleanly split.

Now, machine doubling is a very poor term used to describe what actually happens during it, because nothing happens twice. There is only one strike on the coin, and the die moves somewhat while it's being pulled away from the coin. The better name for this phenomenon is machine smearing, because that's what's actually happening. The die is actually moving metal as it retreats. So, even though you'll see two separate sets of similar features, the differentiations between them will be smeared, blurred. Serifs will be connected. There won't be empty space of any sort between the two, as sometimes happens in severe hub doubling incidents. This is why, whenever we talk about true hub doubling, we always call attention to split serifs. Those are mandatory with hub doubling - what we call "doubled dies" and impossible with machine doubling.

Of course, we're not always lucky enough to have serifs conveniently involved in the "doubling." That's where the "shelf-like appearance" mentioned so often comes in - a true hub-doubled die should have two separate areas of vertical relief, because the feature was struck into the die twice. Machine doubling will not show two separate places of varying vertical relief, because there was only one strike. The "second" set of features (in quotes because they were actually where the die landed first) will be flat.

To further complicate things, die wear and deterioration can cause what looks like "doubling" as well, because the edges of the letters/devices "chamfer" somewhat as the die wears. On your coin, I can see this kind of artifact pretty clearly in the first 7 of "1776." That's not something which can happen with true hub doubling, either.

Meaning no offense, the images aren't quite good enough for me to otherwise call out specific details on your coin to support the argument one way or another.

 

EXCELLENT!!

 

Thank you SuperDave!! You have given me a lot of information to digest in regard to this coin and others that I have in my collection. Your patience and understanding are MOST appreciated. The coin world needs more guys willing to help out the newbies. Have a Blessed day and may the coin Gods shine upon your pocket change~

 

We found a quarter with the date 1976 stamped twice on the front, is this usual?

 

Hi Rebecca..... All quarters from 1976 were minted with two dates. We celebrated the nation’s bicentennial that year and all quarters were struck with the date 1776-1976.

 

First, welcome to the neighborhood, Rebecca!

Can you post photos of the coin?