The 2000-P Extra Beard Penny Doubled Die Error is Condemned

Error and variety coin experts have come to the collective conclusion that the so-called 2000-P "extra beard" doubled die penny error should be "de-listed," or removed from their official rosters of variety coin types. The error came to light a couple of months ago, when a specimen was found that seemed to have a section of doubling on the upper portion of Lincoln's neck, along the beard. The marks match portions of the beard design well enough that Ken Potter, Billy Crawford, John Wexler, and other variety coin experts had listed it in their files as a doubled die. Since the apparent doubled marks could be seen with the naked eye, it was an exciting find, and collectors across the country began hunting for more.

Collector Danny Chapman thought he had hit the jackpot when he discovered that he had whole B.U. rolls of 2000-P pennies that contained the "extra beard." Plus, his coins were struck from fresh dies, what variety coin experts call an "early die state." The previous specimen had come from a "middle die state," which often shows less detail since the dies have been used to struck hundreds of thousands of coins by this time. Chapman sent his coins to Crawford, who examined them, at the same time other collectors had found similar early die state specimens and sent them to Wexler for examination. The early die state specimens had evidence of clash marks on them, including clash marks in and around the area of the "extra beard."

Further research was done, and conferences were held between the experts via email, and soon they had arrived at a reluctant conclusion: the portion of extra beard was the result of clash marks, rather than hub doubling as originally believed. Billy Crawford put together a supplementary edition to his regularly published Die Variety News, explaining the details behind these findings. His account sheds a fascinating behind-the-scenes light into how the error and variety community arrives at its conclusions, as well as goes point by point through how the extra beard type arrived on the scene, and how the experts arrived at their final assessments using logic and computer overlays.

Although the "extra beard" variety didn't turn out to be caused by a doubled die, it is still a very collectible and interesting error! The analysis the experts did prove that when the die clashes occurred that created the extra beard portion, the dies were knocked significantly out of alignment, creating what the variety experts call a mis-aligned die (MAD.) When you add a mis-aligned die error to a clash mark error, you get what they call a MAD Clash, and MAD Clashes are desirable, popular collectibles. Our hobby has shown that many times a great story can make a coin just as appealing as a great rarity to some people, so you can expect that the popular "extra beard" pennies will be around for a long time!

• Billy Crawford's Die Variety News Supplement

Photo courtesy of Ken Potter and the Variety Vault.