1997 Jeff Doubled D? RPM?

[spy88]

Anyone want to take a stab as to whether or not this is a legit RPM or something else?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

David

 

[spy88]

Another view

[EZ_E]

It sure appears that the "D" was repunched but the under-lettering does not appear to be identical with the punched "D".

[spy88]

Have already gotten the word from other sources, that this is a case of mechanical doubling as the mint stopped hand-punching the mint marks in 1990.

 

http://varietynickels.com/images/mintletter2.jpg

 

A letter from the mint addressing this very issue.

 

Thanks again to jtwax.

 

David

[davefperry]

My first thought when I looked was that it had to be machine doubling because of the single squeeze method for making working dies. But since the master P & D dies are hand punched who's to say a mint worker couldn't repunch the master? Not likely but possible perhaps. It looks like there are steps on the D which would mean RPM. It would make for an awful lot of similar coins though.

[EZ_E]

re: Have already gotten the word from other sources, that this is a case of mechanical doubling as the mint stopped hand-punching the mint marks in 1990.

 

 

Aah, nothing like common sense. Good answer.

[jtwax-migration]

My first thought when I looked was that it had to be machine doubling because of the single squeeze method for making working dies. But since the master P & D dies are hand punched who's to say a mint worker couldn't repunch the master? Not likely but possible perhaps. It looks like there are steps on the D which would mean RPM. It would make for an awful lot of similar coins though.

 

Absolutely correct. There is no reason that RPM's on post 1990 nickels don't exist, in fact they do, but from MASTER punching. In this case however, just as you said, there would be ALOT of them out there. For some reason the Mint must be doing a real bang up job because I have never seen one. I would also imagine that you would have to find a nice EDS to even notice and it would most likely be a minor split serif anyway. In any case, they can exist, but would probably get a name like "Master RPM", similar to "Master Die Doubling". Still, a neat item I wouldn't mind having in my collection if I ever find one.

 

Regards,