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1848 Liberty Seated Quarter Dollar - Rotated Reverse
by Greg Johnson
One of the results of assembling this column each
month is that collectors and dealers periodically contact me with a “have
you seen one of these?” question. Though sometimes I can say yes, it is
more frequently an opportunity to learn something that I did not know. A few
weeks ago I received just such an email from seated dealer Rich Uhrich inquiring
about the existence of an 1848 quarter with die rotation. I was compelled to
confess that I had neither seen nor heard of such a thing. Seated quarters struck
from rotated dies are rare. In fact, one can just about count the number of
seated quarter issues known with die rotations (greater than 20 degrees or so)
on the fingers of one hand. Those that are relatively well known include: 1844-O,
1852, 1853, and 1861. I have seen examples of all these, and heard of an 1850-O
with significant die rotation, but not seen it in person. A couple of back and
forth emails confirmed that Rich had acquired an example of a previously unknown
1848 quarter struck from rotated dies.
I met up with Rich at a Pennsylvania coin show last week and checked out the
coin in person. There was no doubt as to its authenticity, but if we had had
any doubts Larry Briggs (who had a table two slots up the aisle from Rich) put
the last of them to rest. He also had never seen nor heard of an 1848 struck
from rotated dies, confirming that Rich’s coin is, as of this writing,
unique. The die rotation is about 90 degrees and, as seen in the figures, this
results in some striking issues. The weak head on Liberty and the weak eagle’s
wing are opposite each other due to the die rotation, most likely resulting
in too large a gap between dies for the planchet to adequately “fill”
the incuse areas of the die. The coin is otherwise about XF.
Photos Courtesy of Rich Uhrich Rare US Coins, Inc.
