Hi, I was looking at my 1942-D mercury today and it looks like it has a double date. I was wondering if someone could look at it and tell me if thats what it is or something else. Thanks!
Hi Gail and welcome to the forum. It does have some doubling on the date as you say, but it is machine doubling rather than being from a doubled die. I see a lot of this on the war time mercury dimes. The obverse die with just the single image of the date was not secured properly, and when the coin was struck, the date appears to "smear" a little, producing a flattened area next to the regular image. This can happen to other areas besides the date, but the flattened secondary is the give-away. No special value over the regular for it, but nice that you found it. Jim
Most certainly machine doubling as Jim has addressed, but I would add that "double date" really isn't a numismatic term. It is used on eBay and by some dealers, but doesn't mean a whole lot except as a general descriptive phrase. Doubled Die, Repunched date and Repunched Mintmark are terms that mean something as is Machine Doubling (even though it is a valueless error on the coin).
