Dies (the hammers that strikes the penny) start out blank and then are struck twice during their creation to put the image of the coin on them. If the two strikes are not lined up the same, you end up with an imperfect die. The imperfect die is then put on the machine that makes the coins and multiple coins are made on it until either the die wears out or somebody catches the problem and the defective die is replaced. So Double Die coins always have alot of twins as every penny struck by the defective die will have the same error. This is a type of die variety error.
Machine Doubling and Die Clatter Errors:
Machine double occurs if a penny is accidently struck twice during minting or experiences something called die clatter. These pennies often carry 0 premium, but some are collectable.
Die Wear Doubling (Poor Man's Double Die):
As a die wears out, it can produce a doubling effect.
Also there are a ton of Double Die error varieties that are not visible to the naked eye and even when magnified are not obvious to the untrained eye. A slight offset between the first and sencond strikes when creating a die, will do little more than create slightly fat letters and numbers but still may be worth $1.00 or more to the right person. Some people collect pennies by die varity and not just mint mark. So they are trying to build complete sets that might include a dozen varietes or more per year.
1982 Valuable Zincs
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Posted - 03/14/2008 : 06:55:55
