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1863 Broken "S" Mintmark Seated Half Dollar...Common???
pinealbany
Posts: 446 ✭
Please look at the lower part of the wings and lower part of the eagle's neck (previous pic), are they doubled??
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That does look like a doubled die, showing at the bottom of the shield.
Take your request for information here and ask Bill Bugert. He and Randy Wiley wrote the book on these.
Ray
There's an 1853 with arrows and rays quarter that is doubled on the obverse in the same area.
I think Bill should look at this.
Ray
Many of the coins produced between about 1844 and 1889 (possibly a little later) are known for having a shelflike doubling around the lettering and sometimes the devices. This shelf was around these features on the master hubs as well and were almost certainly created there deliberately. They are known as Longacre doubling because they first appeared shortly after James Longacre became the Chief Engraver at the Mint and disappeared a few years after Longacre died. Some people have suggested that they were caused by the shoulder of a punch making contact with the dies as the feature was being punched in, but the dies at this time were hubbed, not punched. Some have said that they are the result of the dies chipping or crumbling, but they are found on brand new dies and even proof dies. Often with the outlines showing sharp straight edges. Something you would not see on a worn or crumbled die.
My personal though is that these "shoulders" were placed on the hubs deliberately to act as a visual aid in the sinking and basining of the dies. Longacre was an engraver, not a die sinker. He might have had problems knowing when the die was hubbed deeply enough or the die basined to the prober curvature. Or it might have been done so relatively unskilled people could do the hubbing and basining. When you are hubbing the die you know you have it deep enough when the shoulders start appearing around the letters. Likewise during the basining of the dies those areas that still showed the shoulders still needed additional grinding while those with no shoulders had the die cavities at just the right depth. The time of greatest die production was from the 1860's to the 1880's and this is just the time period when most of the coins with Longacre doubling occurs. Die production got sloppy because they need so many dies and a great many dies were not properly finished.
Since the dies are slightly convex the area around the central devices are the highest points and they usually got sufficiently polished to remove the longacre doubling. The outer legends would tend to be more prone to showing the doubling. On new dies it can be crisp but as the die wears it fades, becomes ragged, and eventually disappears. On the other hand, if the hub isn't sunk deeply enough the doubling will only appear around the central devices.
-Amanda
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