Scissors modes were predicted in the framework of the two-rotor model. This model has an intrinsic harmonic spectrum, so that the level above the scissors mode, the first overtone, has excitation energy twice that of the scissors mode. Because the latter is of the order of 3 MeV in the rare-earth region, the energy of the overtone is below threshold for nucleon emission, and its width should remain small enough for the overtone to be observable. We find that B(E2) ↑ overtone = The scissors mode has an excitation energy of the order of 3 MeV in the rare-earth region [1,2]. The model that led to its prediction, the two-rotor model [3], has the spectrum of a planar harmonic oscillator, with some constraints on the states to be discussed below. The first overtone should then have an energy of the order of 6 MeV, below threshold for nucleon emission. As a consequence, its width should remain of purely electromagnetic nature and be small enough for this mode to be observable, even though scissors modes have a modest collectivity and are substantially fragmented [1,2].The possible occurrence of the first overtone has been considered in Ref.[4], but to our knowledge has not been thoroughly investigated so far. The main reason is perhaps that its excitation amplitude is expected to be too small. Indeed, excitation amplitudes in the two-rotor model are proportional to powers of θ 0 , the amplitude of the zero point oscillation, which in the rare-earth region is of order 10, and the first overtone needs to be excited by an E2 multipole. All other methods used in the study of scissors modes-the schematic random-phase approximation [5], the interacting boson model [6], the sum rule method [7], and a geometrical model [10] is adopted]. This is regarded as significant evidence of the scissors nature of the low-lying magnetic transitions and their collectivity. We expect that such a proportionality should hold for the E2 strength of excitation of the first overtone as well. Even if this strength were small, its study might contribute to a deeper assessment of the nature and collectivity of the scissors modes. We then decided to start an investigation of the overtone within the two-rotor model, because this model allows a first insight into the relevant dynamics in a simple framework. We thus came to the surprising result that B(E2) ↑ overtone is of zero order in the expansion with respect to θ 0 , and, precisely,In view of the smallness of θ 0 , this amplitude is quite substantial. The above result might be relevant to some of the other electrically charged systems for which scissors modes have been predicted: metal clusters [11], quantum dots [12], and, in particular, crystals [13], for which an expansion in powers of θ 0 holds. In all these systems one of the blades of the scissors must be identified with a moving cloud of particles (electrons in metal clusters and quantum dots, an atom in a cell in crystals) and the other one with a structure at rest, the lattice. To make this Rapid Communication self-contained we report the...