2020 P Nickel: DDR Trouble

That's a pretty subtle DDR. Maybe an earlier die stage?

Pass my specs.

For this DDR specifically—which I have never seen in person to my recollection—it seems much softer than the usual hard doubling for this series. It does look like the primary features match up reasonably well, but I could be swayed the opposite way depending on the lighting. My preferred photo method for the door lines is a bar flashlight wrapped in tissue shining parallel to the coin surface, from the top down, with slight elevation to create light and shadows on the doubling.

Regarding the markers, they are almost always a bear. I end up rotating the coin until die dots, gouges, chips become visible via light and shadow. When I look at your pictures vs. BVC, I think you are not necessarily appointed at the right locations. This is what I have found to be effective.

Take a picture of the marker and surrounding hard devices. Rotate the picture to match BVC image orientation. Image on the left, browser on the right. Zoom in and out on your image and/or BVC until you get the hard devices lined up. It has to be something clearly in view and indisputable. For example, the crossbar in the B and the bottom of the I. Farther apart is better, to correctly set the scale. The feature I use for the door itself is the bottom and top of the doorway and the top corners, but most especially the steps. The steps never vary in size, so if you line up five lines and six steps, you know the scale and orientation is close to 1:1 with minimal rotation.

If you scale your image of PLURIBUS to BVC size, I think you will see that the marker you are seeking isn't even in the frame. The other markers might be missing due to an early die state. You might get the one between FIVE and UNITED to show up by changing the lighting angle.

Thank you Brand for your help. I do try to match orientation and
devices showing with BVC generally. Scale doesn't always match. When trying to image doubling and markers, I rotate the coin 90, 180, and 270 degrees as well as play with lighting to try to get the most detail I can. I also find an acetone dip tends to help sometimes. I have a terrible time with ambient lighting.

Without the ambient lighting problem I have (night photos), I was able to get a better photo of the DDR. Photographing markers is still an issue as depending on lighting I can pick up different things in the general areas but nothing as defined as in BVC. Circulation may have to do with that.

Not a big fan of doubling that needs a telescope to see it