Homestead doubled die count: 60

The discovery of a 2015-P Nebraska Homestead America the Beautiful quarter with a strong doubled die reverse that I reported in the May 12 issue of Numismatic News was just the beginning.

Sharp-eyed collectors have added another 59 of these varieties since then.

The original find was first reported by Steve Atwood of Florida on the Coin Community Family Forum.

His discover coin shows a strong “extra” water pump handle duplicated in the second widow from the bottom right of the historic Freeman schoolhouse and is listed by John Wexler as WDDR-004. In a later follow-up article I noted that eight more doubled dies had been reported including one rather nice one that was listed by John Wexler as WDDR-008.

Since then the listings have swelled to a total of 60 doubled die reverse varieties that I know of; Wexler lists 59 total and James Wiles, CONECA’s attributer for 20/21st century die varieties, lists an additional one that Wexler does not yet have.

Out of these newer listings, five are significant varieties that the average numismatist might find of interest. The balance is fodder for eager specialists who want them all.

In the past I felt that when the listings any variety got above 15 or so that few would bother to try to collect them all, but I see a number of collectors attempting to collect all the dozens of doubled dies known for the 2005-P-D-S Minnesota state quarters (with over 150 varieties listed by Wexler so far) and the 2007-P-D Wyoming state quarters (76 listings to date) so it is logical to believe that there will be those who will try to get all the Homestead doubled die quarters, too.

Ebay sale prices for the most major variety, WDDR-004, have seen a significant drop iin value, with typical BU examples selling in the $15 to $25 range, but those described as “Early Die State” are selling for as high as $45. This variety was fetching prices exceeding $100 in May for typical BU examples.

The minor varieties are typically selling for prices in a range from about $4 to $13.

Interestingly, newer varieties not nearly as significant as WDDR-004, are fetching highs reaching over $80 at the time of this writing. Those I saw at those levels were WDDR-017 and WDDR-018.

WDDR-017 is a decent doubled die but nothing nearly as nice as WDDR-004. WDDR-018 is very minor – so minor it’s not worth showing here. Current prices seem to suggest that the number of buyers out there needing WDDR-004 is thinning out while the supply has been increasing with some offers being for groups of 100 pieces at time.

On the other hand, WDDR-017 and WDDR-018 appear to be scarcer with offerings often seeing more than 10 bids.Nicer varieties listed since our last look at these doubled dies include WDDR-017, WDDR-022, WDDR-027, WDDR-032, WDDR-041 and WDDR-042.

I will use photographs here to show all the nicer varieties known thus far and one of the typical “window frame” doubled dies.

It’s interesting to note that no doubled dies are yet known for the Denver and San Francisco issues.

I’d like to thank John Wexler for supplying images shown here. His entire listing can be viewed at http://doubleddie.com.

Most of Homestead doubled dies involve the window frames. Two notable examples are WDDR-001 and WDDR-042.

Ken Potter is co-author of “Strike It Rich With Pocket Change” and has penned many feature articles for “Numismatic News” and for “World Coin News.” He can be contacted via email at kpotter256@aol.com. An educational image gallery may be viewed on his website at www.koinpro.com.

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