Sunday, November 10, 2013

JR Newsletter: 10 November 2013 (165)

One contribution this week, George J Polizio wrote:

 I would like to ask the Early Quarter Dollar collectors if they have noticed this undocumented die state on the 1818 B8 quarter obverse.

The original Browning, the Breen update and both of the latest books on quarters by Tompkins, and the Rea, Peterson et al fail to mention this crack or is it die damage?

While looking over the Eric Newman catalog the person doing the cataloging, after pointing out a few unlisted cracks on other early quarters, also fails to mention this kind of obvious crack, flaw? If you look at lot 33358 the incredible Proof 67 1818 B8 you will see a crack from the tip of star 9 to the top of a dentil.

At first I thought it was probably the same star punch as that of the second star on the obverse that shows an extended line into the field. But the mint workers didn't use more than one star punch  for a die I would think. And also this crack from the 9th star to the dentil does not as far as I have been able to find, show up on the two other varieties that share this obverse, the B9 and the B10.

The only conclusion I can come up with is that the 1818 B8 was the last of the 3 varieties that share this obverse to be struck, and I'm not sure if that is even correct!

Anyway, if any of the other early quarter guys or anybody wants to give some opinions I would appreciate hearing from you.

Thank you,
George