The 1960, 1961, 1962 and 1963 pennies

Australian pennies dated 1960, 1961, 1962 and 1963 were minted in Perth using dies cut from the type 9 obverse and type I reverse master tools.

The only catalogued variety of these coins is the 1962 "double nose" penny, illustrated below.

Mintage
Designation | P60P.9I | P61P.9I | P62P.9I | P63P.9I
Obverse | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9
Reverse | I | I | I | I
Mint | Perth | Perth | Perth | Perth
Mintge | 20,052,000 | 32,868,000 | 34,861,600 | 37,234,700

Reverses
| P60P.9I
| P61P.9I
| P62P.9I
| P63P.9I

The one variety recorded amongst the Perth Mint pennies of the sixties is the extraordinary "double-nosed queen" variety where the obverse shows multiple anomalies, the most obvious of which is a second nose on the face of Queen Elizabeth.

The double-nose Queen
| P62P.9I.1 There are four anomalies clearly visible in this picture. 1. The nose is doubled. 2. The ribbon is doubled. 3. There is doubling of the legend on the right. 4. The upper chest is doubled. More anomalies are visible in the enlargements. Click on the image to see a full-size image (1440x1440 pixels).
| Doubling of the legend on the lower left. This is not obvious from the main picture but shows clearly in the high-resolution image.

When a (penny) working die was manufactured, it is typically struck three times by the puncheon. (Halfpenny dies were struck twice.) Between pressings the die is annealed and machined. When the die is put into the hobbing press for the next strike it has to be carefully aligned so that the punch strikes the die in exactly the same place. If the alignment is imperfect then the die will show displaced imprints of the earlier strikes. This is a well-known phenomenon and a die exhibiting such a feature is said to be a "doubled die". A good illustration of this is this 1943 halfpenny specimen shown here in fairly high resolution:

An example of a doubled die
| Obverse of a 1943 halfpenny showing a doubled legend produced by imperfect alignment of die and punch on the second pressing.

A close look at the very large image of the "double nose" penny is worthwhile. It shows features that cannot have been produced by a single misalignment. I believe that this is an example of a coin struck with a tripled die, where neither the first and second nor the second and third pressings were accurately aligned. Here is the coin again in medium-high resolution along with a higher-resolution segment supporting the tripled die conjecture.

Tripled die?
| Another picture of the obverse of the double-nose penny at higher resolution. More details are visible in the very high-resolution image and in the medium-high resolution segment shown below.
| This picture is presented to support the tripled die conjecture. Note the doubling on the letters EI.GRAT which reflects a vertical displacement. The doubling on the H.II.D (and on the upper chest, nose and rest of the legend on the right) shows a displacement which is predominantly rotational. I suspect that the doubling on the right occurred on the second pressing and that on the left occurred on the final pressing.

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Most recent revision: 8th August 2000
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