1881-H - Double And Triple Punching Around The Clock Micro N

Thanks Darryl!

Turns out I was wrong...the NA in REGINA, and N and D in CANADA are QUADRUPLE PUNCHED!

I can see all 4 punches under the microscope at 30x !

I think this is the first quadruple hubbed 1881H I've seen :)

Would this be classed as around the clock tripling without the Micro N on my 1881H

As C-V said, the '81's are one of (if not the most besides the '59's) neatest, coolest dates to collect in the whole Victoria series. Every die (except 1) used a handpunched, modified, 1876 Obverse hub that had the '76's single serif N's changed/restruck to make them full serif on every single die made. So every die will have had each of the N's in Canada and Regina hand-smacked 2-3 times to make the left foot of the N's full. Depending upon the skill of the hammer-wielder, some of the N's are triple/quad punched with a huge offset. Every coin struck with that specific die will have the same looking weird/ill-repaired N.

Couple that with the chucks/keepers/holders that kept the dies in the proper position in the press. The keepers loosened slightly, allowing the Obverse die to move slightly, creating some well-offset mechanical or Machine Doubling. Depending upon how loose that individual die was, the offsets, direction and number of letters affected changed from die to die (and from coin to coin) sometimes.

In addition, there were some of the Obverse dies that had some of the letters in the legend handpunched to clean them up or repair them, after being made/manufactured/struck from the hub or master. This created hub-doubling offsets sometimes on some of the letters ... a true variety (MD is really and error, not a variety) making every coin struck by that die different than those struck by another die.

I've never counted, but given an average Obverse die life of around 80-100,000, there would be 20-25 or so different Obverse dies that would have differences from the hand-punched N's and another 5-6 due to handpunching other letters. It's hard to estimate the number of coins that were struck with machine/mechanical doubling, but there are quite a few. The man assigned the job of insuring that the screws/holders for the dies were tight must have been having off-days or liquid lunches. So, I would guess that there are 25 or so different actual dies (varieties), some of which are going to have coins struck with mechanical/machine doubling ... the MD stops during the striking run, once the screws/nuts are tightened. MD's, as explained above, will vary as to the number of letters in the legend affected, the offset, and direction of offset from coin to coin.

I have/had a few of C-V's initial post from a while ago, and also have a few of the ''81 in the last post. The 1881's are a fascinating date to accrue and hold. I have more than 500 of them and it's neat to look at all the differences between them.

I love the 1881's too. But not quite as much as the 1859's.


The photo on the original post isn't there on my computer.
This isn't a very good photo, but is this the one you are referring to CV?

Is the double "spur" description actually a misnomer ?

Isn't it an actual part of an N over N when looking at the other RP's in the other serifs in that same N.

1881 H Canada.
One cent.