The 50th Anniversary Mickey die in a machine at Disney Springs Pin Traders developed a bad crack in it earlier this month that was causing the bottom portion of the penny to be deformed when pressing. With the 50th Anniversary nearing the end we were not expecting a new die to be made with the same design but we noticed that this was done by February 15.
With the way dies are now being made it's almost impossible to see any differences between the two design variations. From examining several coins pressed from the new die it appears that the wording on the bottom is of lower quality than the first die.
Below is a picture with the first variation, a penny pressed with the cracked die and the die replacement. The next images are a closeup of the bottom wording produced from the two different dies. Looking at the quality of the wording from the bottom picture not only is it of lower quality but it also appears to be sort of double die.
