Let's look at a gold coin...

[GarryN]

This is going to appear in the February 28 issue of Coin World. A tripled die 1892-CC Eagle. You'd think I would know the answer, but I am on the fence on this one, so I will throw it to the "big dogs" here.

Is this die doubling or machine doubling?

[Dick]

This is only an opinion.....
I have never seen, or heard of "triple-MD, so my guess is Hub-doubling, whether it came from a master, or in the last working die.

[eagames]

Looks like a tripled die to me.

[GarryN]

Thanks for the comments guys, so far there are two that can be accounted for. This is the discovery coin and a member of the C4OA, Carson City Coin Collectors of America, said he has one. Both are NGC MS61.

[wavysteps2003]

There can be tripled, even quadrupled machine doubling; it all happens on one contact and it is primarily due to a resonating coin when it strikes the retreating die.

However, this is a tripled die or a die that has been hubbed three times with each hubbing offset from the other.

BJ Neff

[GarryN]

Thanks very much. It's hard to believe this escaped notice for so long.

[coppercoins]

I was going to say the same thing as BJ on the tripled machine doubling. I have seen it a number of times.

Regarding how this could have gone so long without being noticed - it's simple. Most die variety people don't mess with gold, and most gold people don't mess with die varieties. They are generally two separate worlds.

[GarryN]

Thanks guys. I guess you are right Chuck. Otherwise this coin must be very scarce. The Carson City coin dealer who wrote the book on Carson City coins, Rusty Goe, was not aware of the coin.

[wavysteps2003]

We in the error / variety world are the lucky ones, for it is we that know more how a coin is made, what can happen to it during the hubbing and the coining. Most dealers glass over when talking about errors and varieties until they are struck with the fact that the coin just sold was worth three to four times they had quoted due to a peculiarity or oddity on that certain coin. It is then that some become quite indignant, feeling that they were robbed by a cherry picker.

I do have a certain amount of dealers that do come to me at every show that I do to have coins checked. They are the wise ones.

BJ Neff

[justafarmer]

There were only 40,000 1892cc $10.00 gold pieces struck. Makes me think a high % of these coins would exhibit this doubling. Unless of course the error was detected early and the mint took the time to fish all the errors out before distribution.

[eagames]

It's probably true that:

a) Most gold coin collectors are not variety collectors so they might not notice or look for varieties.

b) Very few people are collectors of doubled die gold coins so it's a really limited market.

c) They probably didn't use a lot of dies on the run so even out of the small number that exist there might be more of these out there.

d) In percentage the premium on a rare coin with a variety is sometimes less because even a normal one is already rare. Still neat to get one at the "normal" price.

I've found things like $50 bills that were old bearer bills and gave them to collectors at face because I didn't want to put $50 aside to save it.

This is why I like finding doubled die cents, I can afford to put a cent aside and forget about it

[smed]

Almost half the entire mintage of $10 eagles was melted after the recall in the 1930's. It's possible that not many 1892-CC's survive.

NGC has graded 451 of them to date. PCGS had graded 321 as of the July 2006 census. Many are probably resubmissions and/or crossovers.