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Longacre’s Doubling

While Longacre’s doubling is most associated with the Indian Head Cent. It is also found on the Seated Liberty denominations and other coins of that era.

There are two theories for Longacre’s doubling. The first, which is most popular, is that the master die was placed into the die steel to form the master die. To add details to the die, the engraver would then shave the sides of the punch used to add design elements, leaving a lip on that punch’s sides. The engraver would then conduct an extra hard hit to the punch leaving the shaved sides effects into the die. The effect would eventually wear off as the master die did age, which is why not all coins from a particular working die would have the Longacre’s doubling.

This is the second scenario. After adding the design elements to the master die, the engraver would move the punch slightly and tap it again. This would produce a ‘lip’ on the die, and the effect would make the metal flow into the punched in design elements more readily. In theory, this would also have prolonged the die’s life.

The image below shows Longeracre’s doubling on the word UNITED on an 1883 Indian Head Cent.