Expert: PAPAJACK - 1/14/2008

Question
I have a dbl headed nickel on one side dated 1994/mint/m-p on other side dated 2004/mint/m-p:is there any value:are there any others.thanks carl

Answer
Hello Carl,                                     

They are not rare and it is not an error coin.
I have experience with these coins and have seen them in Quarters, Half Dollars and Nickels.
All the ones I have come across are machined out on one side carefully keeping the edge intact, while another coin is thinned and slightly reduced in diameter to remove the factory edge. The smaller and thinner half is then placed in the hollowed out half coin.
Look with a good magnifier and light source, where the lower field meets up to the edge. They can be force fit or glued together. Another check is weight; an actual nickel blank weighs 5 grams.

Sometimes this is done as a novelty to sell, to fool people on a coin toss, or a machinist apprentice practicing his trade. I have also heard of them being sawed in half and glued together, but the sawed ones are easier to detect.

They may sell for .50 cents and up to $2 dollars in a shop. Again they are not rare, and are not in demand by coin collectors.

The modern process the US Mint uses makes it virtually impossible for an HEADS (obverse) die to be matched with anything but a TAILS (reverse) die in the presses used to stamp out coins.

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Thank You and Good Luck

PapaJack