$3 Gold Rotated Die Strike

bumpy

While looking, this morning, at an 1859 $3 gold piece I have in high AU condition, I noticed that the reverse appears to be rotated in relation to the obverse. I say 'appears' because it's a little hard to tell exactly how the obverse is meant to be oriented. A Krause book I have shows the bottom of the 'U' in 'United' aligning horizontally with the bottom of the final 'A' in 'America'. Same with the photo in a Travers book I have. The Redbook shows the obverse rotated a couple of degrees counterclockwise so that the 'U' is lower than the 'A'. In any case, I'm assuming the intent was to view the obverse as Krause and Travers show it. Assuming that, the reverse is rotated 20 degrees clockwise.

I'm hoping for some feedback concerning rarity, desirability, value, or anything else the esteemed members of the board wish to comment on this fine Saturday morn.

FC57Coins

Anything under 15 degrees rotation is not worth a premium as I understand it - particularly in 19th century and earlier stuff. I once saw an 1838 or 39-O quarter eagle with the reverse rotated 180 degrees - it had a medal turn to it - now those are pretty cool!

Frank

bumpy

Yes, Krause says 14 degrees or less has no value but also that 15 to 45 has a rarity level of 4-6 which they define as 'very scarce (10,000 down to 1,000)' to 'very rare (100 down to 10)'.

RotatedRainbows

Coins rotated under 90° rarely carry any premium except in very rare cases, if your coin is rotated in the 20° range then it will not affect its value at all. Mint tolerence is 15° in either direction so coins in that range are not considered errors. Frank, most likely you saw a 39-O quarter eagle with medal rotation (180°) as they are right up there with the 1861 gold dollar as the most common US gold coins known to exist with major die rotation.

Coinosaurus

The 1887 proof $3 is the king of rotated dies in this series. It comes in several flavors:

* dies rotated 180 degrees
* overstruck normally after striking on rotated dies
* dies oriented normally

The second is coolest one, you can actually see traces of the upside down lettering on the reverse. It seems that they figured out they made a mistake in the middle of coining them and then decided to restrike some of the rotated die coins. An example sold in Bowers March 2003 sale for $16100.

carterhaines

I have a few coins with 360 and 720 degree rotation, what premiums do those carry?

bumpy

Roughly the same as mine, apparently.