2017 Cent DDO cherrypicked from pocket change

mharris · July 10, 2017 4:50PM

This 2017 DDO is pretty minor, but it is consistent with the Class IV DDO's of the modern mint's single squeeze hubbing era. Wexler has two versions of the 2017 DDO on his site (WDDO-001 and WDDO-002), but this coin seems to have a bit more spread and does not have the die markers of the WDDOs.

In general, all of the numbers/letters look a bit chubby. Then under magnification, the spread is apparent. There is also a little ejection doubling here that confuses the hub doubling. The most notable spread is in the "ERTY" of "LIBERTY" (pictures leave a little to be desired). The date has a pretty good spread in the 2 and 1; a little less so in the 7. Interestingly, there is also a bit of a spread on the lower serif of the "P" mintmark. This is cool because the 2017 is a novel inclusion of the "P" mintmark and in the modern times were MM's are hubbed with everything else, they can get doubled too! Clearly, it is not a '55 DDO, but it is pretty awesome that you can still find an honest double die in pocket change.

Liberty

Date

Trust

itsnotjustme · July 10, 2017 5:50PM

I'm sorry, but just a little hard to get excited about. Pun intended.

ricko · July 11, 2017 4:15AM

OK...now I have to go get my '17 P's that I picked up and look for that DDO.... Fortunately, they have not yet been 'put away'... Cheers, RickO

stash · July 11, 2017 4:31AM

Treashunt · July 11, 2017 4:43AM

How the heck did you spot that?

Or I need new eyeglasses, these are nearly a month old.

CommemKing · July 11, 2017 5:05AM

I always check my change for silver or a wheat, but that takes it to another level.

mharris · July 11, 2017 5:25AM

@Treashunt yeah the photos show the detail, but do not capture the overall look. With a 10x glass you can easily see that the date and "LIBERTY" look odd and are wider than typical. For example, the "I" and "Y" in LIBERTY is nearly double the width of typical. The magnified images just prove that there is split serifs, but lacks . Also, this type of doubling has been present on shield-type reverse cents for the duration of the series, so there are examples to go from.

silverpop · July 11, 2017 5:59AM

nice find

sellitstore · July 11, 2017 6:06AM

It's really more of a manufacturing imperfection although technically a double die.

Is every coin that doesn't have a perfectly centered strike a "misaligned die" or some other error?

Is a coin showing 1 or 2% rotation really an error. Technically, yes. But is it really an acceptable example of a rotated die error. To me, no. It's a minor manufacturing variation "within tolerance".

But if you choose to collect these minor variations, all the more power to you. After all, when you cost is 1 cent per coin, it's a specialty and challenge open to all. So I can see the appeal.

mharris · July 11, 2017 6:44AM

@sellitstore, I respectfully disagree with your characterization. In this case, it is not a result of a misaligned die, rotated dies, strike-doubling, or ejection doubling that is very common on many modern coin strikes. I agree that the separation is small, but it is a product of an offset in the hubbing process of die creation. This the same process that led to many of the notable DDO's like 1995, 1972, or 1955. If this specific variety had some rotation along with the shift-misalignment, it would be a relatively noticeable DDO, but the hubbing process that leads to dramatic rotations was do away with post 1995. Regarding manufacturing variation, I am not sure what the mints tolerance is here, but I assume it is near zero as only a tiny fraction of cents produced are double dies even at the scale of these photos. The question is at what point along the spectrum from this DDO to a 1955 DDO does one take notice? I get enjoyment out of finding anything on that spectrum that can be noticeable with a 10x glass. Some minor VAMs, RPMs, and even things like the 55' poor-mans double die carry premiums although they are minor variations. To each their own I suppose.

Edit: Although I am off to a cranky start this morning, I do appreciate sellitstore's comment