Expert: PAPAJACK - 5/30/2009

Question
we found strange 25 cent quarter with our change it had a head on both sides. Any ideas if it is real or not?  

Answer
Hello Terry,

Your coin is not real!
I have experience with these coins and have seen them in Quarters, Half Dollars and Nickels. These two headed, or Two Tailed Coins are Trick coins, sometimes called Magicians Coins.

All the ones I have come across are machined out on one side, while an identical coin is thinned and slightly reduced in diameter. The smaller and thinner half is then placed in the hollowed out half coin. Sometimes this was done as a novelty for sale, to fool people on a coin toss, or a machinist apprentice practicing his trade.

You will see the seam on the edge, or on a raised rim on one side of the coin.

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

The 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.

Thank You and Good Luck

PapaJack