1934 DOUBLED DIE WASH QUARTERS-DISCUSSION

wondercoin

I recently purchased a nice 1934 Doubled Die Washington Quarter for my collection, which displayed exceptionally strong (bold strike) doubling on the obverse. Interestingly, I do not believe the coin had the doubled die reverse which you commonly see on these coins. So, I did a bit of research, including a consultation with Bob Z. on the subject. Here is what I have come up with so far, but, anyone with additional thoughts or information, please join in.

1. There appear to have been 9 obverse dies and 12 reverse dies used to coin 1934 quarters, but, only a single obverse die was used to strike the strongly doubled die coins.

2. It now appears that 3 reverse dies may have been used in connection with that 1 obverse strongly doubled die. The first reverse die which was used appears to have been the one not doubled at all. Hence, the first strike, early die state strongly doubled, doubled die coins are paired with a non-doubled die reverse.

3. Later die states of the strongly doubled 1934 doubled die quarter then are paired with 2 different reverse doubled dies.

This would appear to result in the following:

1. The majority of 1934 strongly Doubled Die quarters have a doubled die reverse. 2/3 dies appear to have been reverse doubled dies.

2. The strongest, early strike 1934 Doubled Die quarters do not come with the doubled die reverse.

I found this all interesting because for years I had been under the impression that it was really neat to locate the major 1934 doubled die quarter with both obverse and reverse doubling. Now, it appears, the cooler find might be the coin that does not have any reverse doubling.

Any thoughts on the subject, or has anyone else spent any time studying the different varieties of the 34 DDO quarter?

Wondercoin

quattrocoins

Sorry, no thoughts on it, Mitch. I'm not into the varieties.

I do think that you'd get more replies if it was offered for sale, though!

Don

braddick

Not that yours is Mitch, but there was a slew of these located that were die struck counterfeits. I recall seeing two offered at Long Beach about eight years ago and heard the story then.
They looked "MS68" perfect to me. I wish I had purchased one, from what I recall, they weren't that expensive.

wondercoin

Craig: Hi. I pick up a good bit of information from auction catalogues, conversations along the way (earlier this year one of the error specialists offered me a 34 DDO quarter, which we discussed), personal study (I have bought and sold many 34 DDO quarters over the years, including handling the sale of R. Green's MS66 specimen, as I also had little interest in varieties at that time, so I sold it) and most recently a lively discussion with Bob Z. who also liked the gem 1934 DOO I just bought at auction and discussed the subject with me.

The Wash variety set is a very tough set to want to participate in, especially because new coins can be added each year (once 5 coins are graded I believe). So, it really is sort of a "moving target". I own the 1950s/d in MS67 and the 1950d/s in MS67 (pop 1/0) (possibly my most valuable Wash quarter in my collection?), so I have a nice assortment of the varieties - but, I am not actively chasing those coins. For that matter, very few folks are.

Wondercoin

washvarieties

Mitch
1934 double die (Breen 4272 FS-009 coneca 1-O-I) a number of different DMR's (die marriage registry) exist for this coin
example DMR-4 is the DDO and the DDR on the same coin and the DMR-5 with only the obverse doubled (PCGS NGC ANACS ICG) all consiter it as the same coin its not!!
just like the 72 Lincoln there are many different double dies that exist but only (Breen 2265 FS-033.3 coneca 1-O-I) is attirbuted by the grading services
I also believe there are 2 reverse double dies with the the same 1934 obverse double die (DMR-4) but more examples need to be studied

with a mintage of nearly 32 million with 80 obv dies and 107 rev dies study shows 11 or 12 obverse double dies and 3 or 4 reverse dies being doubled
now consider the 3 different mottos the light motto (1932 & 1934) the 1st obverse design has no double die obverse but a double die reverse (DMR-13)
the medium motto (1934 &1935) the 2nd obverse design has 1 major obverse double die (DMR-4 AND DMR 5) and 11 different minor double dies the reverse has 1 major (DMR-4) and 2 different minor double dies
heavy motto or strong motto (1934 and 1936 to 1942) the 3rd obverse design (no heavy motto in 1935) this design is classified as as a series double die a very light spread on the motto with no other known major or minor double dies
I believe that the 1934 double die with out the double die reverse is the rarer of the 2

DMWJR

Mitch, Ron Pope is credited with the discovery of the DDR, (known as 1-R-VI or WDDR-001), and that it appears in conjunction with Stage A of the 34 DDO (known as 1-O-I or WDDO-001 or FS#25-009), which would be the opposite of what you are saying. I am interested in the fact that you think your copy is the earlier obverse with the plain reverse. Is your obverse Stage A or is it just a nice strong strike?

I certainly could be wrong.

There are at least 12 different obverses with doubling for 1934, and many, many more dies were used. Only the obverse above is designated as a DDO by PCGS. The others are minor doubled die obverses, but there are two others that I consider significant. I not only have photos of all of these DDO's, I actually have the coins If you ever have any specific questions about which variety a quarter is, I would be happy to help you out.

Doug

washvarieties

Mitch, Dough
I seen the 1934 ddo FS-009 Mitch has only briefly and to its die state I would need to see it again and from my notes at the auction it did not have the double die reverse
Doug
PCGS does not differ between the FS-009 if it has the obverse only and if the reverse is there also case in point
I have 1934 double die FS-009 graded ms63 with the double die obverse and reverse and a 1934 ddo FS-009 ms65 with out the reverse both graded by pcgs
also I have 2 graded by ICG (DMR-4) obverse and reverse and (DMR-5) obverse only
I never seen a STAGE A (EDS) 1934 double die but would like too
also the (3-O-I+II) a triple die and (4-O-I) are not minor but not as dramatic as FS-009
Doug
what other neat Washingons do you have in your candy box

Bob Z

wondercoin

Doug: The coin I recently puchased displays a nice strong, well struck, obverse doubling. I put it with my quarter collection in the bank the other day, so I, too, can not examine it further at this point. I would like to discuss these 1934 quarters further with you. I have numerous DDO coins in a variety of MS grades as well - perhaps I can gather them up and bring them to a show you might be attending and you can do the same?

Wondercoin

DMWJR

I have to make a correction. I just looked back at my notes, and Stage A is in fact the obverse that was matched with the DDR. Then the reverse die was changed out and there was no doubling on the second reverse. SORRY!!!!

Mitch, I would love to take a look at some of your DD's sometime, and take some photos of them as well. Many of the DD's have only been found in circulated grades.

Bob, I have been working on cataloging Washington DD's 32-64 with Joe Feld for a couple of years now. I know you know him. We have compiled a set of almost 1,000 different Washington DD's for the series.

wondercoin

Doug: Sounds good. PM me and let me know which shows you will be attending next year.

Wondercoin