Some help with this 1962-P Proof WQ 25c Reverse, please?
Azurescens
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I'm not very good with proofs. They are my next "semester" of coin study. So I was going through my proof sets and found this with a nice blue Franklin, bronzed nickel, and bronze-blue dime, gorgeous red cent and this @ricko approved Washington quarter.
I used the green to illustrate the mechanical doubling. Yellow areas and all the lines are raised up off the coin or seem to have some sort of engraving. Tail feathers are all goofy too. The only major PUP is the beginnings of a die crack at the base of the bust, right on the edge and faint enough to hardly see, it's thinner than hair. Designer initials are fine.
Thanks in advance I'd appreciate any knowledge or help on these odd marks on the letters, wings, etc. The obverse is a very nice strike and I don't see anything similar.
Sorry for all the pictures but they are small file size.
Comments
Oops here are the rest of the pictures. I think I included enough in the crops to differentiate which image goes where on the coin.
Thanks again for looking!
I'd love to know what these are and why they're there or if they're a flaw or engraved or DDR, I dunno.
Most of what I see highlighted is mechanical doubling... I am unable to see the faint die crack. There is a lot of light glare in the pictures - which are otherwise quite nice. Cheers, RickO
I made a second post with shots of the lines @ricko. Sometimes images will mess up if I put too many in. What are all the scraggly lines over what appear to be old worn out straight lines? Or am I viewing this wrong?
Some of those lines do look 're-engraved'....certainly a different appearance.... I think i will wait for @FredWeinberg to comment on this one.... Cheers, RickO
Here's a spread of the tail feathers. Almost all of the lines on the eagle have this engraving. The smaller ones and the head don't, and the feet and arrows seem fine.
The tail feather lines pale in comparison to the ones on the wings. They're quite noticeable. I saw the wing lines through the cello, and the tail feathers on further inspection.
There's a couple of other proof Wash 25c known with re-engraved tail feathers. This was a shallow part of the proof die and those that are known with the re-engraved feathers were initially very weak from die polishing.
Thanks. Do you know of any with all the wing feathers done too?
The design strike is very weak. Some of the leaves and branches look almost flat against eagle's right wing (our left).
Nice eye to catch that!
Well done.
If they're raised, they're hand-engraved feathers (awesome find!). All type B (proof) reverse quarters, even back to the 30's, have hand-engraved lines in the wings..
Admittedly, I didn't read all the commentary, I spent my valuable retiree time looking at the pictures.
The black, yellow, and green highlighted areas don't get me too excited. Did you check the three ddr's listed on Conecaonline.org to see if you have a match?
The reengraved tail feathers are another matter (if I can politically use that term anymore). I don't recall seeing any other examples of 1962 proofs with reengraved feathers, but I suspect that since I was always looking for cameos, I would not be looking for later die state strikes.
I was not aware that the mint was hurting in 1962 as far as die production was concerned - this would press the mint to "salvage" dies via reingraving to strike proofs instead of being retired. It was far different tin the early '50s.
I hope some of the experts will opine further on the reengraving on a 1962 die.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
You can see in the large obverse pic that the last A in America has three / / / marks across the top left side.
The 2 in the date has a bar under it that makes it look like a square base 2 bust half that got too close to the rim. The 9 connects to the rim, too. There's the standard 9 metal, mechanical doubling metal, and a thinner rounder line that I think was supposed to be a longer tail, or a tool that got loose I dunno. IGWT is fine except a touch up or two. No more extreme than the 1 in the date.
Be neat to find another like this.
Yes, the raised lines caught my eye when I tilted the coin. It looked too "scaled" for the feathers, and they looked sharp but not sharp in the right way.
Thanks
Did you check the three ddr's listed on Conecaonline.org to see if you have a match?
I can't find anything anywhere but don't own a CPG.
Not in the CPG.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
I found an earlier die state 62 last night with eagle's left wing (our right), but to a lesser extent. It has the beginnings of the bar under the 2 (3 "shelves" not 4 and barely touches the rim and no line under 9, only one wing and untouched but failing tail feathers in design. There's a 1963 similar to the EDS 62 but no matching die markers I can see.
Did the mint reuse reverse dies? This is why we have business strike type B reverses right?
Thanks again for all the help. I can get pictures of the specimens if it's anything worthwhile. The two 1962 proof sets came in the same mint box, so idk if that means anything.
Proof dies (the cause of the "Type B') reverses are often used to strike circulation strikes after they are no longer suitable for striking proofs. This happens for other coins, such as the "wide AM" Lincolns too. No need to waste a perfectly good die as they are expensive.
There's probably some minor differences in the wing feathers on the quarters from proof dies, too, but they have so far been largely ignored.