Part XI. Non Errors:

Altered Coins:

Squeeze job (vise job, sandwich job, hammer job)

Definition -These terms are used in reference to coins with an incuse design impressed into the surface.  Such alterations are designed to mimic a brockage or a double strike.

The images above show a 1939(P) Lincoln cent with a squeeze job. Another Lincoln cent was placed on top of the cent pictured and pressed into the obverse face while the reverse face rested on a hard, textured surface. This produced an incuse mirror-image version of the word LIBERTY and the back of Lincoln’s bust, along with an impression of the design rim. The reverse shows a pattern of parallel lines transferred from the surface the coin rested on.

This coin is courtesy of R. Morgan Harney

The 1941(P) Lincoln cent shown above is a true vise job. The coin was placed  between the jaws of that device then squeezed. This left the gripping pattern of the vise incused into both faces of the Lincoln cent.