Did you know that the U.S. Mint RESTRUCK some Isabella Quarters in 1896???
CaptHenway
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Fascinating article by Roger Burdette in this month’s The Numismatist!
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
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Absolutely, an interesting read. I had never heard of this. I wonder that with the vast holding Ms. Palmer had, that more upper BU specimens are not available.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
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Is the reported total mintage figure correct?
@CaptHenway While I get a print version of the Numismatist, a link to the article would be very useful.
Maybe that’s why mine wouldn’t pass CAC. It looked undergraded to me.
Highly doubtful.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
That was an interesting article for sure. There's all sorts of stuff out there still waiting to be re-discovered.
RWB is quite the asset to this community.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
It is in the June issue, which is available online to members.
Very interesting development for sure.
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Is it possible to add a link to the article?
I would very much like to read this as i think this is one of the most beautiful US commemorative coins
https://northwestcoinclub.com/uploads/1/1/4/3/114393559/isabella_quarter_restrikes_-_numismatist_versiion.pdf
The traditional gross mintage of 40,000 plus a small number of assay coins is correct. Then some were melted, as long recorded. Then approximately the same amount were restruck, for reasons explained in the article.
Very interesting article and well researched by Roger Burdette. Cheers, RickO
I never knew that that we call that quarter “Isabella”. I assumed that it was an image of the King. The Eleanor Roosevelt quarter will take that beauty crown away in a few months. Edit: yesterday.
Thank you Roger, Fred, and Vasanti for getting this to us.
A most interesting article and thanks for alerting us. It is ironic that the competing group of women who took Queen Isabella as the name for their organization ended up having Queen Isabella featured on the coin. Also of interest to learn that the design of the coin's reverse was not preferred, but became so as a result of convenience because time was running out.
The underlying theme of Roger's article though is the significance of this coin to the "Women's Movement of the time." In that vein I came across the following in my afternoon walk yesterday that extended to here in the Northland also close to the turn of the then Century:
Very nice article. Theres a lot of great information in it! Too bad the first strike was melted.
I have an ANA membership but this is still more convenient for me. Thanks to the Northwest Coin Club for hosting Roger's article.
It would be great to have an analysis of the coins done to see if the original and restrikes can be differentiated. I loved @tradedollarnut's photo comparison of the Gobrecht Dollar original and restrike eagle beaks for comparison.
Great article. I wonder if it's possible to distinguish the dies, or if a single die pair was used.
If a single die pari was used, die state may also be able to determine the original and later strikes.
I just looked up Bruce's article on the Gobrecht Dollars here:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/978170/gobrechts-original-vs-restrike-discussion#latest
Great read! The Isabella has always been my favorite commemorative!
What interest me was not just the article ... but how and when does Roger come up with research ideas. Does he just wake up one morning thinking about when and if Isabella Quarters were struck in 1896?
I look for forward to his future book on re-strikes et al ... I have enjoyed reading several of his other books and articles.
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Ah! Careless wording and a needless destruction of coins. Does this mean that the original dies were used for the restrike?
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I would be interested to see if there are any reeding differences among the general population of Isabella’s, and if so if there are any differences between 1893 and 1896 Barber quarters from Philadelphia, but I don’t expect any.
It would be great to check for this and any other differences, like dies and die states. It would be a wonderful additional discovery if differences could be identified.
A fascinating and surprising article!
Please critique the following: a newly accepted net mintage figure of about 40,000 seems more consistent with slabbed populations, if you compare to the Lafayette dollar, which is believed to have a mintage of 36,026. The PCGS/NGC population (all grades) for the Isabella is roughly 10,000, and the Lafayette at all grades is roughly 7000. I might expect survival and submission rates for the Lafayette to be similar to or perhaps greater than that of the Isabella. With the new mintage estimate, the ratio of mintage to populations are about 25 % for the Isabella and 20 % for the Lafayette. With the prior Isabella mintage, the numbers would be about 40 % and 20 %, so double for the Isabella as compared to the Lafayette. It's hard to guess how crossovers and resubmissions are affecting the numbers, but double 'feels' surprising, and the comparison using the revised Isabella mintage feels plausible.
Roger Burdette has clarified that U.S. Mint die destruction records show that two pairs of Isabella Quarter dies were destroyed in very early 1894, per usual die destruction of previous year dies protocols, and that two pairs of Isabella Quarter dies AND a pair of Isabella Quarter HUBS were destroyed in June of 1896 after the Isabella Quarter restriking was completed.
This information was very recently gleaned from the Newman Numismatic Portal, an amazing research venue. Check it out.
Of course, just because the Mint had two pairs of dies in 1893 and two pairs of dies in 1896 does not mean that all four die pairs were used. One pair in each year might have been spares in case the ones actually used broke. Further research is needed. Check your coins.
@CaptHenway said:
Could not agree more, shout out to the team behind the Newman Numismatic Portal. This information has been available for a few years.
I like the NNP. There is so much to look through and you'll never get bored.
Pete
Having worked in coin shops in CHicago for over 25 years I have seen a lot of circulated or otherwise mishandled Columbian Half Dollars and Isabella Quarters. I suspect that people who bought them at the Expo just put them in their pocket or coin purse and only later bothered to put them in a dresser drawer where the "circulation" ceased.
Would this mean that an Uncirculated Isabella Quarter is more likely to be one of the Restrikes, as they would have been more likely to have been handled better?