1847 Liberty Seated Quarter Dollar - Repunched Date, Doubled Die Reverse

by Greg Johnson

The 1847 quarter presents the variety collector with perhaps the most diverse and interesting die marriage set of any Philadelphia mint seated quarter issue. The eight business strike die pairs listed in Briggs’ “Comprehensive Encyclopedia of United States Liberty Seated Quarters” (Lima, OH 1991) include a recut date, a doubled die reverse, a compass point reverse, a misplaced date, a large die chip, a large rim cud, a very high date, various obvious and distinct die scratches and cracks, and rocks that appear to have several different shapes. No other issue in the Liberty Seated Quarter series presents the collector with such an opportunity to include so many interesting varieties in one set of 8 coins. The single most interesting variety, and one of only two that currently command a premium, is the doubled die reverse (DDR) paired with the recut date (1847/47).

Though certainly not common, even by seated quarter standards, the ‘47/47 DDR (Briggs’ 2-A) quarter does appear fairly regularly and in all grades. I have personally seen two different PCGS MS63 examples, two nice AU’s, and know of a PCGS MS64 example in an LSCC member’s collection. Despite this apparent availability, there are few enough of these coins in existence that even relative rarity can be hard to estimate. It seems like, five years ago, one could locate a DDR 1847 quarter (Briggs’ 1-A, paired with a normal date obverse) from time to time, but the ‘47/47 DDR was much more difficult. More recently, this trend appears to have reversed with most DDR 1847 quarters offered now having the ‘47/47 obverse. Both of the DDR die pairs appear to command a premium of around 30 – 50% with high grade examples of the ‘47/47 DDR sometimes being bid up to much higher levels at auction.

Attribution of the two DDR die pairs is fairly straightforward. The reverse die doubling is very pronounced and obvious even on lower grade coins. Coins grading as low as VG often still show separation between the crossbars in the “A” and “R” in “QUAR.” and on the left (facing) eagle claws. The obverse is equally simple in that the ‘47/47 date position is unique amongst all of the 1847 obverse dies. The recutting of the date, however, is worn away quite rapidly and is frequently not visible on examples grading less than XF.