Interesting commonwealth penny error??

[Justin100]

Hello-

I would be curious for some opinions on this less than beautiful commonwealth penny. Appears that the obverse is double struck over the reverse of the coin. So I’m guessing it was erroneously struck with the reverse twice. Is this a common error, has anyone Seen this before?

 

Thanks,

 

justin

 

[Rob]

Double struck and either flipped over unintentionally between two strikes, or possibly was replaced upside down having fallen out. We'll never know but it happens occasionally. Here is a clearer example on an Anne farthing (P732) showing the same thing. Date on Anne's head and ties to left of shield.

 

Edited April 4, 2024 by Rob

[Justin100]

Thanks Rob! That is lovely and interesting Anne farthing you posted! It is nice to see different error coins-and makes sense on hypothesis of how and why these coins appear. 
 

kindly,

 

Justin 

[Coys55]

I've not seen a commonwealth before, but double struck short-cross pennies are fairly common - there are usually a couple on eBay at any one time, sometimes with bizarre descriptions claiming rarity (one was being sold as a "sceptre-less penny" last week). I suspect they were struck in such quantities and with little or no quality control that if one fell out of the die it was just put back in whatever side up and whacked again.

Interestingly there's a double struck example in the hoard memntioned in this thread: https://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/14678-nice-hoard-of-henry-ii-to-henry-iii-found-in-norfolk/

It's the top-most penny in the picture. I can't tell from the fairly low-res image if it's two sided or the reverse rotated for the second strike though.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2024 by Coys55