Should you come across a two-headed or two-tailed coin in circulation, or a coin with the obverse and reverse of two different denominations, the likelihood that the piece is a genuine product of the United States Mint is slim to none. But a few have been exceptions.
Over the decades, Coin World staffers have examined hundreds of purported two-headed or two-tailed coins and cent-dime combinations, and all have turned out to be alterations created outside the Mint. Coin World regularly receives telephone calls, letters and e-mail from readers and others who have found such coins in circulation. For most of the publication's years of existence, the standard reply to collectors who thought they had found a rare error was that such pieces were believed impossible.
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A SPECIALIST IN Flying Eagle and Indian Head cents believes this double-obverse 1859 Indian Head cent was produced when a die blank intended for a cent reverse die was mistakenly hubbed as an obverse die, permitting its pairing with an obverse die produced normally.
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Most of these pieces are "magician's coins" or novelty pieces produced by a number of companies nationwide, most notably the Johnson Smith Co. of Bradenton, Fla. The company has fabricated two-headed and two-tailed coins and coins with designs from two different denominations. Some two-headed Jefferson 5-cent coin alterations sold by the firm not only have been manufactured from coins struck in different years, but at different Mint production facilities as well.
For most of the 20th century, two-headed or two-tailed coins, and coins with the obverse and reverse of two different denominations, were considered impossible as Mint accidents. Both the obverse and reverse die shafts had had slightly different shapes, permitting only correct orientation of dies upon installation into a coin press. The practice now seems to be that all obverse dies have one orientation, while reverse dies have another.
It was also believed safeguards were in place to prevent the pairing of dies from different denominations.
Now, Coin World has had to change its standard response to customers.
No longer impossible
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THIS NOVELTY PIECE was made from a Lincoln, Wheat Heads cent cut edgewise, then ground down to match the diameter of a dime. A dime was also cut edgewise and the obverse attached to the altered Lincoln cent reverse. Similar techniques have been used to create two-headed or two-tailed coins.
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In the spring of 2000, the first of the 10 confirmed double-denomination mule error coins pairing a State quarter dollar obverse die and Sacagawea dollar reverse die, struck on manganese-brass clad dollar planchets, surfaced in Arkansas. U.S. Mint officials not only confirmed that such errors had been made, but that thousands, in fact, had been struck, though almost all had been recovered before entering general circulation.
Since Mint officials confirmed that quarter dollar-dollar mule, several cent-dime mules have been found and verified.
Mules are coins that are struck from two mismatched dies - dies that should not have been paired. Several types of mules are known on world coins (and some now on U.S. coins): double-denomination mules, pairing dies from two different denominations; design mules, pairing designs from the same denomination that should not have been used together; coin-medal mules, pairing a coin die with a medal die; and duplicate-die mules, resulting from the pairing of two obverse dies or two reverse dies.
In the December 2000 issue of Longacre's Ledger, the journal of the Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Collector's Society, collector, researcher and metallurgist Chris Pilliod provided a detailed hypothesis for how an 1859 Indian Head cent with two obverses was struck during normal circulation. Pilliod believes the anomaly is mislabeled as a "mule." Pilliod believes the two-headed cent was created as the result of normal production, although a mistake was inadvertently made in die production.
According to Pilliod, a blank die machined in 1858 for expected use as an anvil die (the stationary die on which the planchet rests during striking; the reverse die, in this case) for Flying Eagle cents was left over and inadvertently placed into a box for the hammer dies (the moving die, in this case the Indian Head cent obverse).
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THE YEAR 2001 yielded two double-reverse coins that were certified by professional grading services. NGC graded and encapsulated the double-reverse Washington copper-nickel clad quarter dollar during the first half of the year while PCGS graded the double-reverse Roosevelt copper-nickel clad dime during the latter part of the year. Both errors are believed to be San Francisco Mint products, since they were found with coins known to be from that facility.
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A hub operator could have easily grabbed such a blank die and proceeded to fabricate an Indian Head cent obverse on an anvil die, according to Pilliod. Pilliod believes that happened because the neck of an anvil die has to be longer than the neck of a hammer die for proper production to occur. Pilliod believes the only way the two-headed 1859 Indian Head cent could have been made is if an obverse die was produced on an anvil die. It turns out that the pairing of two dies of the same side also happened in the 20th century.
In 2001, grading services certified the first two-tailed Washington, Eagle copper-nickel clad quarter dollar and the first two-tailed Roosevelt copper-nickel clad dime.
Numismatic Guaranty Corp.'s certification of a two-tailed quarter dollar (graded Mint State 63) was reported in the July 30, 2001, issue of Coin World.
Bob Wiborg, of Gold'n Coins & Jewelry, La Habra, Calif., indicated the double-reverse quarter dollar was part of a lot of several hundred misstruck U.S. coins acquired from a May 2001 sale by the California State controller's office of unclaimed property from bank safe deposit boxes. The double-reverse quarter dollar was among a group of coins that had come from a safety deposit box in California whose contents were at one time seized by the U.S. Secret Service, inspected and then returned to the state of California after officials pressed for their return.
David Camire, NGC Mint error specialist, and David W. Lange, NGC's director of numismatic education, determined the piece a genuine die-struck coin. They also determined the coin was produced circa 1965 based on a comparison of the dies to the known hubbings from the period. It is considered a San Francisco Mint product, since the hundreds of other coins with which the double-reverse quarter dollar was included are San Francisco Mint strikes. Lange said it was conceivable the double-reverse coin was produced as a result of Mint personnel taking shortcuts at a time of coin shortages. During 1965 to 1967, coins were being produced without Mint marks at the Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints. While dies were often produced in such a way as to prevent two dies bearing the same design from being inserted into a press, obviously that care wasn't taken in this instance, Lange said.
News of a second double-reverse coin came in the fall of 2001, when Professional Coin Grading Service authenticated a double-reverse Roosevelt copper-nickel clad dime (graded MS-64). That first surfaced in the early 1970s, but was not publicly disclosed until 2001, by "Lonesome" John Devine, a pioneering error dealer, collector and researcher.
According to Devine, sometime around 1973, he purchased the double-reverse dime from a San Jose, Calif., collector who had gone to Devine's Newbury Park, Calif., offices to sell him a large lot of major error coins struck at the San Francisco Mint.
The weights of both the double reverse quarter dollar and double-reverse dime were within the proper legal standards for the denominations.
Real or an alteration?
So how can collectors be certain about whether what they have is a genuine Mint error or an alteration?
In his Feb. 3, 1997, Coin World column, "Detecting Counterfeits," Michael Fahey, who was then a senior authenticator-grader for ANACS and is now a senior numismatist for Independent Coin Grading, addressed the several techniques used.
According to Fahey: "The first two-headed coins were produced simply by cutting two coins in half, then matching up the obverse and reverse and gluing them together. This method produced a rather noticeable seam on the edge, so it was refined.
"The next step was to hollow out one side of a coin, leaving the edge and the rim intact. The second coin was then cut out to fit into the opening of the first piece, leaving the seam either outside or inside the rim denticles.
"By using a precision lathe, this operation can be accomplished rather easily, and the fit between the two pieces can be as accurate as the operator wishes. A bit of Super Glue gives the two pieces an unbreakable bond." For the earlier form of alteration of joining the same side of two coins together, in most cases the alteration is easily detected by inspecting the edge of the coin.
The other, more deceptive method of alteration is tougher to detect. It involves a state-of-the-art, precision lathe using tolerances often measured in 1,000ths of an inch. This type of alteration can be detected by a close examination of the coin along the rim on the side where the two halves were joined together, but the examination needs to be made under magnification. A 10-power loupe will provide sufficient magnification in most cases.
This more deceptive method has been used to replicate the State quarter dollar-Sacagawea dollar mule error. The manufacturer of these novelty pieces machined out the obverse of a genuine dollar coin, leaving the obverse rim and the reverse intact, into which was fit a machined quarter dollar obverse to fill the opening.
The joined pieces are then plated to resemble the genuine article worth tens of thousands of dollars. This alteration is detectible by examining under magnification the area where the edge of the quarter field meets the rim of the dollar.
