More Minnesota quarter doubling found

For the first time since I started this series, new reports of doubled-die reverse or ?Extra Tree? varieties on the Minnesota quarter dwindled drastically with just a few new reports. Nonetheless, the first doubled-die obverse has just been reported and a second doubled-die reverse for the proof version of the coin has been found.

The discovery of a doubled-die obverse may in fact be the beginning of a new string of discoveries as folks start to check both sides of the coin for doubled dies.

David Serbonich of New York sent in the first and only one to be reported thus far that is now listed as doubled-die obverse #1 (DDO#1) for this date, mint, denomination and type. It shows medium strong doubling on Washington?s earlobe. The doubling is close to the center of the coin design, suggesting it is a tilted hub doubled die. Serbonich reported it to me on Sept. 11, 2006.

Kevin Zaletel reported our second listing for the 2005-S proof version of the Minnesota quarter in the clad format. It shows a portion of the primary tree with the doubling fully displaced from its point of origin snuggled in against the tree. There is also a trace of doubling of the rock to the right of the primary tree to the north. He reported it on Sept. 6, and it is now listed as DDR#2.

Zaletel also reported upon our fourth listing for the Denver issue that is rather minor but displays an extra branch on the lower right of the primary tree. There is also some very light doubling to the right of the branch above the one pointed out by the arrow.

We hit DDR#40 on the Philadelphia issue with a rather nice find that one would have expected to be reported by now. It shows a portion of the primary tree fully displaced from its point of origin out in the field close to the tree. This one is somewhat similar to DDR#27, but distinctly different as it more widespread in the area of doubling. Gerald Fishman of G&F Gallery submitted it on Sept. 5.

Our final new listing for this week is DDR#41 that was sent in by Serbonich. It?s another minor listing displaying an extra branch on the lower right of the primary tree.

DDR#41 was submitted by David Serbonich on Sept. 11. This one displays an extra branch on the lower right of the primary tree. There is also some very light doubling to the right of the tree above the one pointed out by the arrow. This variety is very similar to DDR#32, but is significantly higher.

While it has been covered previously, we need to revisit DDR#15 for the Philadelphia issue only because the die state we showed previously was very late and showed relatively little of the doubling as compared to the early die stages.

John Wexler first reported the variety in a fairly early die stage. He provided an image that did not get used three issues back due to oversight, but since then an even earlier die state has been found and was submitted by T. Michael Harty on Sept. 2. Doubling is seen as the highest relief areas of the rock right of the primary tree shifted wide north. It is really one of the nicer doubled dies for the series.

A market for the coins outside of eBay now appears to be developing as evidenced by a display ad in the pages of Numismatic News in recent weeks. Frequent advertiser James Weir of Buycoinshere.com of Cumberland, Md., indicated during a telephone interview that he found over 400 DDR#1 while searching a $25 box of the rolls he had in stock.

DDR#1 is one of the top five or six varieties all being of about equal stature for the Philadelphia issues. He has been marketing them on eBay at a buy-it-now price of $149.95 and at a like price in Numismatic News for several weeks now. He said he has sold approximately 200 of them nearly equally split between the two venues so far.

Tilted Hub Doubling restricted to such a small area of design within the center region of the die is possible due to the result of either of two related scenarios.

1.) The hub is backed off after the initial kiss of the hub into a tilted die blank and is then reset properly and hubbed again.

2.) The hub and die blank are tilted in relation to each other and are then forced to seat into proper position by hubbing pressure within a split second after the initial kiss of the hub into the tip of the die blank.

It must be understood that the face of a die blank (referred to as a ?die block? in Mint jargon) is machined with a slightly conical configuration to aid in the flow of metal during hubbing. This would indicate that the initial kiss of a hub into a die blank would be restricted to this centralized area before continuing on to fill out the rest of the design. During this process, the tip of a tilted die blank would be positioned slightly off location away from the center of the hub into a different area of design than intended and thus the misplaced area of doubling on the affected die.

With these Minnesota quarters we are well into the single-squeeze hubbing era so researchers feel that the doubling would have most likely occurred when a tilted hub/die seated into proper position within the single squeeze of the hub.

We suggest to readers that there could be many more doubled-die varieties for the Minnesota state quarter just waiting to be found on Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco proofs. We ask that any new varieties be reported to this author for a follow-up article. Listings covered in earlier installments of this series can be found here: www.koinpro.com.

Ken Potter is the official attributer of world doubled dies for the Combined Organizations of Numismatic Error Collectors of America and for the National Collectors Association of Die Doubling. He also privately lists other collectible variety types on both U.S. and world coins in the Variety Coin Register. More information on either of the clubs or how to get a coin listed in the Variety Coin Register may be obtained by sending a long, self-addressed envelope with 63 cents postage to P.O. Box 760232, Lathrup Village, MI 48076, or by contacting him via e-mail at KPotter256@aol.com. An educational image gallery may be viewed on his Web site at www.koinpro.com.