Melani616 Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 (edited) Hi everyone I'm new here and I have a silly question; thanks in advance to whomever responds... Why on today's modern Lincoln pennies do all the letters look doubled??? Edited July 3, 2023 by Melani616 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenstang Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 Welcome to the Forum. That looks like Die Deterioration Doubling caused by a worn die. It would only occur on dies that have had many strikes causing wear. There is no premium for this as it is part of the minting process. Sandon and powermad5000 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coinbuf Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 Welcome to the forum, and not a silly question at all considering the huge number of new people that post here who are confused by this very thing. There are actually several causes for effects that look like your example. as greenstang wrote your coin looks to be from worn dies, but this fake doubling or ghosting of the lettering and devices can also come from strike doubling and in the case of the zinc core copper coated modern cents something called split plate doubling. All of these are generally common and the product of poor quality control vs any type of real error. It is important to remember that coinage for circulation is produced at high speed in immense quantity, the US mint is a production factory and coins for circulation do not have to be perfect to fulfill their intended purpose. powermad5000 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKK Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 It's not silly. For someone without much background in coins, it's a completely natural question. Stang and Buf offer likely explanations. In 1982, when the penny's composition changed, it really exposed flaws in the process in my opinion. powermad5000 and J P M 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powermad5000 Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 Welcome, and there are no silly questions in the pursuit of knowledge. All things mentioned above combined, the Mint also is notorious for overusing dies to get the most strikes out of one set to keep their costs down. The effect you are seeing I agree is die deterioration doubling also known as die erosion doubling. In the modern high speed presses, there are also a lot of questions that come into this forum about coins that have die chips. This again is the Mint overusing sets of dies until they start to break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J P M Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 Welcome Melani616. Another thing to be aware of is the fields on a lot of new coins are very mirrored. Light reflections can give a false look of doubling devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldFinger1969 Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 On 7/4/2023 at 2:41 AM, powermad5000 said: All things mentioned above combined, the Mint also is notorious for overusing dies to get the most strikes out of one set to keep their costs down. Is a few extra dies really going to save much $$$ ? How many coins do today's harder dies go before they need to be discarded? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenstang Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 (edited) It is not only the cost of the dies, it is also the lost production in down time changing the dies and readjusting the coining press to the new dies. I have read that when running one cent coins, they try to get runs of close to a million before changing the dies. Don’t forget the mint puts quantity or quality. Edited July 4, 2023 by Greenstang Correct spelling powermad5000 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleRJO Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 On 7/3/2023 at 11:05 PM, Coinbuf said: your coin looks to be from worn dies, but this ... can also come from strike doubling Even more common with older coins with inferior metal used for dies, and where they beat the snot out of the dies to get their moneys worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
