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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;beef1020, post: 2960310, member: 24544&quot;]I think it&#039;s best to be clear on definitions and process.&nbsp; When a coin is struck, it is struck with two dies, one obverse and one reverse.&nbsp; It&#039;s important to understand what a die is and how it&#039;s made.</p><p><br /></p><p>The die has an incused image to the coin, so all the raised portion of a coin are low parts of the die and vice versa.&nbsp; Next, the dies are made from a master hub.&nbsp; The master hub looks the same as the coin, and is used to press the incused image onto the die. So in the minting process we go from raised image on hub, to incused image on die, to raised image on coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once you understand that process we can move onto a doubled die.&nbsp; When a die is made, the master hub is pressed into the die multiple times to fully create the incuse image.&nbsp; Each time the master hub presses the die, it must be in exactly the same orientation.&nbsp; When the hub rotates slightly between pressing you get a doubled die, because multiple images are now present on a single die with a small rotational difference.&nbsp; If this occurs and the die is used in production, you get a mintage of coins with exactly the same rotational features as the die.&nbsp; All coins minted using that die are rotated exactly the same amount, and that rotation becomes diagnostic for numismatists to identify the specific die used.&nbsp; If your coin does not match exactly on all parts, then it is not that specific doubled die.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now that you understand how a doubled die is created we can address the most common way to get rotationally doubled devices on a coin.&nbsp; When a coin is struck by the dies, if the die is not firmly locked into the press, the die can shift during the strike, or bounce and strike twice with some rotational shift.&nbsp; This can create doubling on the coin that is similar in appearance to a doubled die, however the doubling is specific to the coin and not the die.&nbsp; There will not be multiple coins created with exactly the same characteristics because the doubling was not present on the die itself but instead was a function of the minting process.</p><p><br /></p><p>What you need to understand is that machine doubling is extremely common.&nbsp; So common in fact that I believe it&#039;s just an accepted part of the manufacturing process at the mint.&nbsp; I suppose that as a die is used the minting forces cause the dies to become loose over time, and the mint sets it&#039;s maintenance interval such that some portion of dies loosen prior to being re-tightened.&nbsp; On the other hand, a doubled die is a much bigger manufacturing mistake and one that the mint does a fairly good job of catching and rejecting in the die QC process.&nbsp; As such, very few doubled dies with dramatic doubling make it into the production process and actually strike coins, which partially accounts for the value collectors place on them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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