Double Reverse 1970 GB Penny 0

[7.jaguars]

Here are some pictures from a coin just acquired from Jollie olde Englande. It has been "approved" as original and not counterfeit by no less than Mark Rasmussen. I see no seams on edge or inside of rim. What do you think? I will in any case see if it slabs......

 

Edited October 11, 2019 by 7.jaguars

[Crawtomatic]

<donning my ignorance cap>

Is this possible in the minting process?  If I were engineering a press I'd design it so that the obverse die & reverse die had different fittings so they could only go in the approved position.

[Just Bob]

6 hours ago, CRAWTOMATIC said:

<donning my ignorance cap>

Is this possible in the minting process?  If I were engineering a press I'd design it so that the obverse die & reverse die had different fittings so they could only go in the approved position.

I can't speak for foreign mints, but for the US mint, that is the case - or at least was in the past when the "two-tailed " Roosevelt dime was created in the late 60s or early 70s. A mint employee had to grind the lugs off of a reverse die in order to put it the obverse die position.

If this one turns out to be genuine, I would love to know the story behind it.

[7.jaguars]

Fortunately or unfortunately, there seem to have bees some mischief going on at the Royal Mint in the early to mid-60s and this may be one of that sort of thing as well. Examples:  the gold 1965 penny on Byers' site and another gold halfpenny. I have copper nickel OMS pennies from each year 1964-1967, many odd errors from these years, and a double obverse 1965 Crown (that would be the Churchill one, but no Churchill reverse) that just sold for about 3,000 USD at auction.

Haven't seen another proof error of this era though, even though I do have a specimen 1970 halfpenny struck in copper nickel.

 

[Conder101]

Probably some shenanigans inside the mint considering this was was a proof only issue.  Since the strike is sharp this would have had to have been done with two anvil dies.  I'm not sure due to clearances whether or not you could remove the coin from the press without assistance in such a case. (If you had two hammer dies it would definitely need assistance because the hammer die in the anvil position would not be able to eject the coin from the collar.)