Introducing the 1921 Penny Double Die Obverse
Intro
Andrew Crellin of Sterling & Currency recently rang. He was looking for evidence to support a PCGS varietal grade on one of the half sovereigns recently added to the latest edition of The Gold Sovereign. This piqued my curiousity. It was great fun providing the biggest update to Australian half sovereigns in probably decades. However, I replied that I was invested in the enigma of Perth Mint bronze releases. One of those pennies appeared to be a double died aka double hubbed variety. I was interested in getting PCGS recognition. Andrew replied that evidence is needed. So I went looking for it.
Double Struck of Doubled Hubbed?
Let’s start with the basics. Without getting too bogged down into the differences, I thought the following diagram found on Facebook a useful guide. Below the diagram is PCGS details graded 1916I penny (cert. 34940336) given “Altered Surfaces”.
My suspicions are that the obverse die that struck this coin (and a number like it) was partially loose. Evidence for this is the differences seen in the rim beading. While right of 12 o’clock is normally struck, to the left is rim beading that appears to have initially struck the rim before moving clockwise before completing the strike. Note that the O in OMN shows signs of strike doubling. While the flecks of ink or other spotty material on the obverse are self-evident, less so is how the planchet was gouged, particularly around the B in BRITT. I’m familiar with whizzing, but cannot explain the altered surface details grade by PCGS. Dies bouncing around is one way that strike doubling occurs.
Australia’s Famous Double Die Obverse of 1962
Contrast the flattening of the O in OMN above with the clearly separated letters BE in ELIZABE in the screenshot below. To view a slabbed example in the finest grade possible, click on this link. Reviewing this hubbing issue is useful in that I previously held beliefs that it was more than a double hubbing. However, similarly to the above coin displaying die chatter in a portion of the coin’s circumference, we can see similar exaggerated double hubbing on the legend to the right and less to the legend on the left. The doubling of the queen’s nose on the right is suggestive of a clockwise rotation between strikes, yet the ribbon’s strike suggests the hub’s obverse face dropped lower on the second strike of this working die. I’m unable to visualise how this occurred as I cannot see the machinery used to hub this die, but it is recognised as hub doubling by PCGS.
Double Hubbed Coins and PCGS
This double hubbed obverse and reverse 1919 penny was brought to my attention from an advanced collector out of Albany WA, selling on Ebay. He’s one of the few Ebay sellers I trust and you can find him by clicking here. There’s a couple of notable things about this example. Firstly, PCGS doesn’t display it as a separate PCGS listing in the population report. It simply comes under 1919 dot under in BN. So one of the efforts of this blog post is to keep a record of these pre-decimal double hubbed varieties for collectors (and this author) to reference in future. The coin’s cert. can be perused here: https://www.pcgs.com/cert/84136193
Secondly, the double hubbing affects the lower portion of the reverse die from the center down to the rim. Note that the A in AUSTRALIA show trace of doubling. Most of the legend is unaffected. The lower scroll, by virtue of its fine details, illustrates the doubling well. As does the date. The following link has a useful image showing real coins affected by strike doubling and double hubbing to assist collectors – https://www.error-ref.com/push-doubling/.
Asking an Expert about the 1921 Penny
I know of no person I’d rather talk errors than Mike Diamond of error-ref.com. He’s always responded in a cordial and timely manner. The response to this question was no different… except he couldn’t see the doubling! It was when I returned this screenshot of the legend, pointing him to the separated fonts in E and F in REX.F that the doubling was confirmed.
This particular date has likely escaped PCGS’s attention due to the relatively minor nature of the doubling. To the untrained eye it would look like strike doubling. However the separated fonts in the F and E, along with the elongated dots in the legend provide the clue to hub doubling. White arrows point to other evidence of doubling and most notably, it is this 90 degree sector from 12 o’clock to 3 o’clock that appears most affected. Above all, the doubling is visible as the coin remains in UNC condition. The PCGS certificate can be viewed here.
More Doubling to Follow
Australian gold and bronze pre-decimal coinage have a particularly rich heritage in varieties. However there’s still a lot of work to do in getting PCGS recognition. Below is the updated edition of The Gold Sovereign, which this author has contributed to. It features seven new varieties of Australian half sovereigns, with an eighth subsequently revealed for the next edition. All I can do is send the coins I have in my possession back to PCGS (if slabbed) and seek the varietal attribution.
Additional Reading
https://minterrornews.com/features-2-13-17-doubled-dies-vs-machine-doubling.html
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