What do you think of this Bust Quarter ..??

Smittys

Better Pic tomorrow

abitofthisabitofthat

What do I think?

I think that QuarterNut is going to weigh in with a thorough, insightful critique of the coin, and even a lesson in minting and die varieties, that is going to put my meager knowlege to shame. After being amazed at his replies to any early quarter post, I finally broke down and mailed him a check for a copy of his new book. I can't wait until it arrives.

Cladiator

At first glance it looks nice. At second glass I notice the color is off on the photo. The flip is white but appears butter yellow which leads me to believe you're not seeing the true color of the coin in that photo either. Also, something is going on around S5. The field infront of the bust, the neck and the chin appear to have some significant markings as well.

BillJones

The coin might have enough detail to be an AU-58, but question is what is the luster like? It looks like it might fall short in the department and therefore only fall in the AU-50 to 55 range.

gecko109

Dipped/retoned

Steve27

I had a similar reaction, at first glance the coin looks great, but is that graffiti in front of the bust and are those black spots less distracting due to the dark lighting?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

guitarwes

AU coin with what appears to be some post-mint abrasions in front of the face and around stars #3-7.

doh

AU details, cleaned and retoned.

BECOKA

Can't tell much of anything from those photos.

I'd guess AU53

291fifth

Burnished ... pass.

JJM

Meaty/cleaned/ working on re-toning...............

1TwoBits

AU details, but cleaned.

This is the common R-1 Browning 4 variety. The picture obscures the die crack through the C in 25C on the reverse. Note the incomplete extra 1st stripe in the shield.

JRocco

Based on these pics, this one sure looks boinked to me.
It looks like it has had several hours of "work" done to her.

speety

pass

LoveMyLiberty

Common B-4, late die stage, funny fields

Quarternut

As to detail, I would say that it is a solid AU-55 or better coin. However, there has been extensive work done in the obverse field between the left stars and the face of Liberty. It looks to me as if someone tried to remove some graffiti or initials that were scratched into the field by smoothing out the surface metal. Then a layer of toning was applied to both sides (presumably using sulfur) to further hide the work and enhance the look of the coin.

As others have said...pass, run away, wait for a better example.

As stated by both, 1TwoBits { to the boards by the way!}, and LoveMyLiberty, this is the 1831 B-4 die marriage and is most definitely an R-1, the most common marriage found in 1831 and perhaps the second most common marriage found in all of the small diameter series (1831-1838) behind the 1834 B-1. The 1831 B-4 is very common in all grades and especially in higher grades.

As also pointed out by 1TwoBits & LoveMyLiberty, the reverse has a die crack that goes from the rim below the denomination up through the right side of the C to the stem of the olive branch. This crack only occurs during the striking of this die marriage along with several other light cracks at other locations that aren't as prominent.

This reverse was first used with another obverse to create the very scarce B-3 die marriage and no B-3 examples show any die cracks on the reverse.

QN

coinkat

pass