Wavy step dies or trail dies

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Wavy Step or Trails is an anomaly that is found on some U. S. Minted coins that occurred during the die making by the single squeeze hubbing process.

In 1986 "The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint" for FY86, states that the MINT had been experimenting with a new single squeeze hubbing system. In the year 1996, the U. S. MINT announced at the opening of the Denver Mint die shop that the cent, nickel and dime would be made from this process. It took to 1999 to include the rest of the denominational coins to be produced by this method.

While the single squeeze hubbing process was to eliminate the doubled die, which it did not, it also produced another die anomaly that was similar in nature. This anomaly is called "wavy steps" or a "trails" and is considered a variety type error since it is found on every coin that the particular affected die produces.

The die anomaly, "trails", began to occur in the year 1986, shortly after the Mint began experimenting with the single squeeze process and persists even to this year, 2007. To date, over 400 examples of dies affected with this anomaly have been found on cents, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars.

The first wavy step die was discovered in 1995, on a 1994 Lincoln cent from the Philadelphia mint. It was not until the 2003 that this die variety gained popularity when another die, a 2003 Lincoln cent, was discovered and written about in COIN WORLD magazine. It was only a matter of time that more and more of these varieties began to be uncovered. It wasn't until the year 2003 that the name "wavy steps" was affixed to this anomaly.

The phrase "trail" die was first thought of in the year 2000, when Ken Potter observed lines trailing off some of the design elements of a wavy step die. Comparison of other dies that carried both "wavy steps" and "trails" showed that the lines from both anomalies traveled in the same exact direction. From this, it was ascertained that these anomalies were one and the same thing with the only difference being the direction that the lines took.

While the exact cause of "trails/wavy steps" is not exactly known, it is believed to be caused by movement of the die against the hub during the single squeeze hubbing process. There is some similarities to this type anomaly and a doubled die, however, the major difference is that a doubled die is a duplication of a design element, while a "trail" die is an extension of a design element.