Has anybody ever heard of the 1842-O large date Seated Quarter - eagle with 'Open Claws' variety?
Eddi
Posts: 559 ✭✭✭✭✭
I found this coin at a small coin show some years ago, a mid grade 1842-O seated quarter, large date.
Nothing special about it, except that it is a very little known, (and apparently quite scarce) variety, with the so-called Transitional reverse for that year.
This variety is described in full at seateddimevarieties website, in a note by Mr. Greg Johnson. I took the liberty to attach his comments to this post.
In it, he describes this variety as the 'Open-Claws, Transitional Reverse' variety, different from the standard for the year where the eagle's claws are closed. My question is, has anybody ever heard of this variety, and/or maybe has an example of this variety to show?
Many thanks,
4
Comments
I hadn't heard of this variety, but yours appears to match Greg Johnson's photos.
Congratulations!
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
It wasn't on my radar either. This date is scarce enough in its own right that I haven't really had an opportunity to study the die marriages.
The trouble with rare Seated 25c varieties is that only a small number of people pursue them, and most of those people want to cherrypick them rather than pay a premium up front. You'll find plenty of 1856 S/s, 1854-o "Huge O", 1843-O "Large O", and even 1842-o small date quarters for sale at retail prices, yet you may have a hard time locating non-variety examples of the same dates for sale.
Thank you, both very much for your comments.
I often find it interesting how some varieties become popular with collectors while others, perhaps equally interesting and scarce seem to go unnoticed.
It's hard for it to be "popular" when there are only 2 or 3 known.
I checked the GFRC sales archive, and he has only sold 1.
Could still be desired by Seated Quarter variety collectors, who have the Briggs book and thus know about it.
It's just that there are probably not too many Seated Quarter variety collectors.
So with the number of collectors (aka demand) somewhat low, you tend to see the phenomena that @rhedden described.
I wonder about the origin of the variety myself.
The "open claws" look like they might be a die state.
They do not look different in shape; they look more shallow, with more field visible in between.
This could happen if the die was lapped.
Or it could be the working hub was not pressed into the die quite as deep as on the other reverses.
When I see the term "transitional", I tend to think of a mule made with old and new hubs.
Like the 1840-o V-6 half dime, or the 1841-o F-101, F102 "closed bud" dimes.
I don't see that here.
In seated half dimes, there are several years which have "short pole" varieties.
Essentially the pole is shallow.
These could happen from several different causes, and seem to be die states.
@yosclimber, you make some good points. I had not considered that the 'open claws' may be due to die state considerations.
fwiw, i'm pretty sure the claws variations are in more than one seated denom. there are probably die states contributors to some but for some are simply design variations from either die to die and/or year to year.