1960 D Jefferson Nickel Doubling? Double Struck?

I'm waiting for coppercoins to give his point of view, I bet he will say what Metalman said and that is, it was an intentional error from one of the mint employee.

This coin is a legitimate error. They are called double denomination errors. While it is possible for it to have been done intentionally, They usually are not.

Heres how it happens.

First the cent is struck.

Then along with thousands of others, it is in a huge bin waiting to be dumped into huge bags that are now used at the Mint to transport struck coins to the companies like Brinks and Strings to count and wrap the coins.

While the coins are being dumped from the bin (huge bag), a coin or two gets stuck in a fold in the fabric bag from which it is being emptied.

Next step,,,,the huge bins are used continuously for whatever is being struck on a given day so in this case, it was later loaded with nickel planchets to be struck into nickels. The struck cent comes loose and is fed into the press and gets overstruck by nickel dies.

Nickels are thicker than cents ...so the presses are set up accordingly, they are set up to strike the thickness of a five-cent piece. As the cent, which is already struck, falls between the nickel dies, the dies come together. Since the cent is thinner, the cent does not spread much and the contact of the dies to the cent does not obliterate all the details.

Simple but this is how these errors occur.

Thanks,
Bill

Jim1953, Mild steel is very soft. You can make an impression in it. The dies are softened, (anealed) to make them sofr for the hubbing process and the devices, and design placed. Then the die is hardened again to make it resist the pressure in the strike. This is rough, but essencially what happened. Some one took some mild steel , pressed the nickel into it and then hardened it. Then they strick, (more likely placed the SIC "DIE" and the nickel in a press, Big, hydraulic type, with many tons capabiliity, and did the dirty deed!
I agree, the reverse it not in phase with the obverse. The coin is an obvious fake. Any attempt to "sell as authentic" would be a felony.
Dick

Huh, man am I confused, now. Bill I think I understand what you are saying and it makes sense if you are shifting from a nickel say to a cent and the head spacing would be different. However, wouldn't this then overlay a nickel obverse on the Lincoln or visa versa? This appears to be a nickel image on a nickel. The head spacing should have been proper for a full strike, not just a light impact. Also, I guess it is possible, but what are the odds of the coin going thru a second time and first landing with the obverse up again and then to have it land so that the coin would be located in the same position as the first strike with no phase shift of image from the first strike to the second. Or am I just lost? Oh, and how would there be a rim present in the middle of the coin?

Jim

Thanks Rick.

I just did a long explanation and I dont have time to dig into it as much this time so forgive me if it sounds a little brief. My first post got lost somewhere:-)between "submit reply" and landing here.

First, there is confusion about the first coin in this thread which is the nickel struck over a nickel. That coin is a fake.

The second coin is a double denomination error and it is legit.

A few things. metalman, it is not a Mule. A mule is a coin struck once by two dies that were not intended to be paired. A while back, there was a States Quarter obverse paired with a Sacagawea eagle reverse. That's a mule.

Next, The cent would have been fed into the chamber since the nickel is only slightly bigger. It would land in the chamber randomly and it did as evidenced by the fact that the cent details and the nickel details are about 30 degrees off from one another. The cent being only slightly smaller and completely in the chamber would appear to basically be centered but if you look closely, the details from the nickel are not perfectly aligned.

Finally, the presses used in Denver in 2001 have feeder fingers that feed the planchets into the press in an upright position. Imagine coins being struck in your hands if they were clapping in front of you in an upright position.

A Mint employee would have his hand crushed if he tried to manually feed a planchet (in this case a coin) into the press manually as the chamber is not laying flat but is at a 90 degree angle to the floor.

So again, The second coin, the nickel struck over a cent, is a known error type. It's called a double denomination error. The one shown is real. My explanation as to how it occurred is accurate.

It looks as if someone put a penny in a nickel press while testing it. From what I hear they don't run the press at full pressure while they are testing it for alignment and what not. That would explain why there is remnant detail from the penny. If I were doing the job I'd probably throw a penny in also. Doesn't everybody like to see pennies get squished?

Coop, that is the best explaination I have read yet. It makes perfect sense now.