Why Does Everyone Think They Have A Doubled Die?

Because people are lazy, and want everyone else to do the work for them and give them the answer.

Rather than putting in the time and learning themselves.

My LCS has these people come in all the time, it is annoying.

He tells them "I don't search through Pennies for people".

They literally hand him a bag and expect him to look for doubled dies and errors, it's a joke.

I think one big part of the disconnect is that most people, even if they have been collectors for a while, get confused because they don't really understand what a die is, much less how it is made.

They just think that this round piece of metal goes into this magic chamber, is "stamped" by something, and then comes out as a new coin. If it accidentally gets "stamped" twice, it is a doubled die.

They don't know anything about the hubbing or die making process, and they don't really care to. That is, not until they are forced to, by having to understand why their "double" "die" penny they listed on ebay for $100 is not selling and is only worth 1 cent. Unfortunately some of them do sell, which only perpetuates this confusion. The same goes for not understanding why PMD is not an error, or what are Cuds, die chips, strike-thrus, and so on.

And then those who know all this and can see the difference in a second tend to forget that these people really don't see what you see, and they won't unless they spend enough time understanding it.

I am actually amazed at how nice and patient everyone here is with this type of thing. It is one of the main reasons why I think it is such a great place for coin enthusiasts. I am really glad I found it! I know there are a lot of people who come and go. But I am pretty sure a lot do stay and learn if they want to, because it is a great environment with a lot of really nice and smart people. I know that is why I have stayed.

Thanks

I am amazed, also Cointree and silverthorne. Everyone has been very patient and understanding. Coop, your pictures, illustrations, and explanations have been a great reference for learning about the coin process. Thank you.

I would say the biggest reason why certain "fads" of error coins are happening right now, is social media. Facebook and YouTube, in particular, are full of people talking about rare and valuable coins they find in change. "I got this quarter in change, it's worth $5000" makes headlines and gets lots of views and likes. "I went through $2000 worth of quarters and found nothing but damaged coins", not so many. Those first kinds of posts therefore get promoted by the social media algorithms. So people watch this content, and think, "Cool, I'm gonna try it and see if I can find anything odd".

Some of those people on Facebook and YouTube are genuine, knowledgeable collectors. They are, unfortunately, outnumbered by "influencers" who know little to nothing about coins but are happy to bandwagon-jump onto the "get rich through small change" hype train. Facebook coin groups, in particular, are notorious for being full of people tossing coin jargon like "double die" (sic) about, with little or no connection to what the coins actually are. On many of those groups, anyone who posts actual numismatic truth about the non-erroneous nature of their so-called "errors" will get shouted down as a hater.

If Facebook, rather than Google (or a place like this coin forum), is your first port of call when wondering what the "funny looking coin" you've found is, then it does not surprise me at all that many of those people are picking up and perpetuating things that simply aren't true. However, these Facebook coin "experts" rarely offer to front up any money themselves to buy these pseudo-errors they are propagating. So these people's next port of call after Facebook is a coin dealer to try to cash in on their new-found wealth, and they get upset when the coin dealer refuses to pay above face value for their "errors". So, in seeking a third opinion, many end up coming here. Where we will, sadly and patiently, tell them the dealer is right and Facebook Inc is wrong.

It's not entirely unlike coming out of a cult. They have much that they need to unlearn.

CCF has a very active Pinterest page, gets over 400K views a month. I log in every 2 or three days and every time there is over 100 messages exactly like you describe. I don't even read them anymore, I just delete and block them all.

@Hondo Boguss: I will wrote to who wrote the article if want to buy those coins at 50 to 75 % of his article price, then you are in the business.

We had a guy come to the house once with his collection for Susan to sell on consignment, said he had a Morgan worth 80K. When he got there it was in a Gallery Grading MS 68 slab (remember those ones curved on the bottom), it was only barely AU. The guy freaked so bad we almost had to call the cops, he thought we were trying to scam him out of his $80,000 coin.