1 stotinka 1970, Bulgaria [solved]

Happy New Year to everyone!

Could you please explain the difference between the Bulgarian 1 Stotinka 1970 coins listed on the PCGS website as “Regular Strike” and “DDR Regular Strike”?

Both coins appear to have the same design (People’s Republic of Bulgaria / 1 Stotinka 1970), but on PCGS they are listed as two separate categories:

 - 1970 1 St DDR(Regular Strike)

 - 1970 1 St  (Regular Strike)

The description on PCGS only mentions “DDR”, but I don’t understand what the actual difference is. Is it the mint location, a die variety, a difference in the reverse/obverse details, or something else?

Thank you in advance for any clarification.

The DDR strike was minted in east Germany the regular strike was Bulgaria 

There is no difference in the coins.All coins are minted at the Sofia Mint.

This is the information in the BNB catalog.

https://www.bnb.bg/bnbweb/groups/public/documents/bnb_publication/pub_np_catalogues_coins_p1_en.pdf

coinmaniacbg, thank you very much for the material from the official BNB website!

However, I treat this catalogue with a certain degree of caution. Unfortunately, it does not seem to present the full picture of the varieties and the actual mintages of the issued coins, and overall it gives the impression of being a rather “unfinished” document.

At the same time, on the PCGS website this coin is separated into Regular Strike and DDR Strike. I can indeed see some visual differences between certain examples, although I also approach this carefully, as I would prefer to rely on confirmed documentary sources.

So my question is this: where exactly does PCGS obtain the information about a DDR Strike? Is this based on archive documentation, or is it simply an internal classification?

I would really like to understand this more clearly, in order to know whether there is a confirmed separation by mint location, or whether such a distinction does not actually exist.

Dear Offa, thank you very much for your reply.

I do not believe that PCGS would intentionally publish inaccurate information about coins; however, it is a little concerning that, for example, in the case of the Bulgarian circulation coins of 1951 certified by PCGS, neither the country of minting nor the specific mint is indicated anywhere. At the same time, there are clear characteristic differences between the coins - meaning it is quite possible to identify where each coin was struck - yet PCGS does not place any particular emphasis on this.

Against this background, it is therefore rather surprising to see that specifically for the 1 Stotinka 1970 coin a separation is introduced into Regular Strike and DDR Strike (Regular Strike).

I don't know where PCGS gets this information.I have never heard or seen any information about DDR Strike before.

I am pretty sure that DDR in this case doesn't mean East Germany, but doubled die reverse.

 Thank you for the clarification. The doubled die reverse effect can indeed be seen on the Regular Strike coin — especially in the word СТОТИНКА, as well as in the date of the denomination.

However, on the very example that PCGS designates as DDR Strike (Regular Strike), I do not observe this doubling at all.

And this is exactly what creates the confusion: if DDR in this case really means doubled die reverse, then logically the doubling should be clearly visible on that particular coin — but it isn’t.

PCGS shows a population of 1 for this DDR with this picture that does show a doubled die.

This is one of the pictures for the non-DDR

I would like to clarify one more important detail in order to understand the situation correctly.

On the PCGS website, the coin shown as an example of the DDR Regular Strike variety does not visually display any signs of a doubled die when the date “1970” is enlarged: the contours of the digits are single and no doubling of the relief is visible. In other words, by its characteristics this coin appears to be a normal regular strike.

At the same time, on another example classified as Regular Strike, clear doubled-die features can be seen when enlarged — namely secondary contours on the digits of the date and in the word “СТОТИНКА”.

This creates a rather paradoxical situation: the coin labelled as DDR Regular Strike shows no doubling, while the doubling features actually appear on the coin classified as Regular Strike.

This naturally raises the question of whether the illustration used on the PCGS website is accurate, or whether this may simply be a technical error in their database.

At the same time, in theory one cannot completely exclude the earlier interpretation of the abbreviation “DDR” as a possible reference to another mint (e.g. East Germany), although there is currently no documentary evidence to support this.

Clearly a DDR from the PCGS picture. I think your picture of the coin is fuzzy, slightly out of focus.

1970 1 St (Regular Strike) - PCGS ValueView™

1970 1 St DDR (Regular Strike) - PCGS ValueView™

DDR is (double die reverse)

DDO is (double die obverse)