Machine Doubling Vs Double Die

Hi,

It would be easier if you posted a picture:-)

Some of us could write books on the differences between the two. There are many forms of worthless doubling and each has it's own distinctive look.

To try to simplify it a little, coins struck by doubled, tripled, quadrupled etc. dies have characteristics that are different depending upon the spread of the doubling and the state of the die(s) when it (they) struck the coin.

We look for the duplicated details to be rounded and not flat. We look for grooves between the images. We look for separation of the details, even though a coin with a close spread may have little separation of images. We look for notches on "corners" of letters or numerals. We look for splits in serifs on letters that have serifs.

Many of the descriptions I've given can, to the untrained eye, look similar on coins struck by dies that have multiple images as a part of the die and on coins that have what we call Machine Doubling.

Post a Pic. We can probably tell you what you have and then explain why. That would be easier than writing the whole book here:-)

I have some doubled dies pictured at

http://www.foundinrolls.com

Chuck has a huge sampling of pictures at

http://www.coppercoins.com

You may want to go look at some of the pictures , particularly some of the closeup shots on Chuck's site. It should help.

Thanks,
Bill

PS: The correct term is doubled die. That is not meant to sound smart:-) We try our best to teach the terminology that goes with this fun part of the hobby.

Thanks Again,
Bill