Is This A Double Die On This 1985 Nickel?

Caused by a completely worn out die and heavy circulation. In addition, there are not any known 1985 Philly Jefferson doubled dies.

The die started off as normal but as the die aged, the devices started to distort. The clue for the different? Note the devices near closest to the rim. Note how they are looking more distorted there. But they eventually get worse looking and enlarge even more with more aging of the die.






On of the first clues to die wear besides the distortion is on the fields. The die flow lines:






So if the devices look mushy, they are probably just die wear, not a doubled die. On a doubled die on the nickels they tend to be more horizontal to the shape of the devices:

Note on this one there is die wear showing close to the rim, but it is a worn doubled die:


Note how the doubling on this one is a slight rotation of the hub process that made this doubled die interesting.

Seeing a normal image with a DDR, you can see what is enlarged and what is just die wear, or both?



Note how the spread enlarged the vertical appearance of the devices?





Hope this exhaustive study of the differences between die wear on nickels and doubled dies helps. When you see the side by sides of these examples, you are training you eye on recognizing the differences. I have many more example I could show on this subject, but I may add this information on a new thread in the future.

CoopHome: On Nickels what is the difference between die wear/normal and doubled dies? How to spot each?