Is This A Double Struck 10c Do You Think?

Not sure about the double strike but the obverse looks like it has heavy die crack almost all the way around & the reverse has a die crack from about 10 0'clock to 2 o'clock.
Are there any raise features of the reverse design in the open fields of the coin,i do see some odd things in your pics but can't see them well enough.

I will get out the USB microscope tomorrow and take some close-ups of both sides.

My first impression of the obverse was that the space between the top of the lettering and the rim was incused or flattened, making it look like there is a 'gully' around the whole central area. Now I'm thinking it's an optical illusion caused by the circular die crack, so a much closer look will give us all a better idea.

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts so far.

Yeah there is definitely something esle going on with that coin,the raised bits in the normally clear smooth field do resemble parts of the normally design & the doubling on all the legends would warrant further investigations IMO.
Do you have a coin shop or coin dealer near by that you can take the coin to & get their opinion,i really can't make the call for sure but I believe it's worth getting it looked at by a professional.

Sel,Nancy,Markn or a couple of the other members here might be able to give you more info if they see the thread.

I'd love to see it I hand as it has me very interested in what exactly it is.

Is the obverse & reverse correctly opposite each other ,no rotation ?

I'm actually thinking it is heavy die clash along with all the other errors already mentioned but as I said too hard of a call for a definite from me sorry.

What an interesting coin this is turning out to be!

I won't have access to a coin shop or dealer for some months that I know of, so I'm sorry that won't help solve any questions.

Thanks appleangel and nancy for your comments to date.
It would be great if someone else found one like it to look at that's more cluey than me. Here's hoping!

Sel - my husband suggested sending the photo's to the RA Mint to see if they could shed some light on it. Am I likely to get any response from them do you think?

Also - I'm going to ask a really dumb newbie question here... Is it at all possible the 10c blank was struck hard (at least on the obverse) with the empty collars from a $2 die during a changeover of denominations? I put a $2 coin on top of a 10c, and the room left between the outer edge of the 2 to the inside rim of the 10 corresponds to the circular impression on the 10c darn closely. If the die changeover was then completed and the blank was struck again or double struck with the normal 10c dies it might look like mine. It would explain why the U, S, & T in Australia especially look like they were stamped on top of the edge of the circular area.

Just grasping at straws I guess. I've no idea what the collar that holds the dies together looks like or whether such a thing is even possible, so don't laugh too hard please

I'm happy to ask weird questions though, if it might stimulate some fresh perspectives.

Well, I checked all the 2002 coins I had at hand, 35 of them, and found 1 that's has a small raised line on the Obv that is a bit similar to RAD's coin, but I don't really think it's the same:

Here's the obv with arrows indicating where the line starts and ends. I had to tilt the scope to try to get any of the line to show up, so that's why it's a tad out of round.


Close up of just the area involved.


No extra lines on the Rev at all. Unfortunately the coin is stained, I washed it to see if I could improve it, but no go.

I might give it a soak and see what happens. IMO, it's only worth 10c, so I can hardly devalue it.

I soaked it and it looks a bit better, 2 more close-ups:





I still don't know what caused it. Looking more like a die crack on my coin, but for some reason, I don't think that's what it is.

I wonder if it could be something that happened to the planchet when the rimming was done.

I don't know enough about that part of the process to know if that's feasible or not.

with nancyc. I think it has happened to the planchet when rimming was done.
I have seen this "trench" inside the rim of $1 coins quite a lot during my "noodling". I have kept this rather natty 1985 $1 coin because it has such a well developed "trench". Pic attached below

Squire