1956 Double Bar 5 Washington Quarter Variety

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by jaceravone, Jul 1, 2009.

  1. jaceravone

    jaceravone Member

    Has anyone ever heard of this variety? The other day, I was searching through some quarters that I am looking to sell when I noticed something odd about this quarter. So I started to look at it and quickly notice some unique properties of the coin. First thing I did was turn to the Cherrypickers guide. There was no mention of it there. Then, by pure luck, because I had been pricing these quarters, my price guide was turned to this page and there it was.....the 1956 Double Bar 5 variety. Only commands a few more bucks, but still neat to find. Coin would probably grade XF. Still some original luster on the coin and had it not been for all the hairline scratches, I would even say AU. Coin was found by my dad and given to me. So by all accounts, this has been in the family since my dad found it around that time period. THe pics are bad....really bad, but I finally got my computer back today and I was testing out all the accessories to make sure they worked and snapped some quick pics of the quarter. Any history or comments of this variety are welcomed. Joe
     

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  3. andy21us

    andy21us Coin Hoarder

    A very nice find!
     
  4. Magman

    Magman U.S. Money Collector

    What mint were these made at? I'll have to start looking :)
     
  5. coop

    coop Senior Member

    Looks like a die chip in the upper 1/2 of the 5. Nothing extra for premium. It happens.
     
  6. Treashunt

    Treashunt The Other Frank

    agreed.
     
  7. jaceravone

    jaceravone Member

    These were minted at the Philly mint.

    Not much of a premium, but the price guide I have has a seperate line for this quarter with a very, very small premium above what a normal 56 quarter would go for. I guess this small premium represents what a variety collector might pay for this one? I don't know. But obviously there must be enough of these found for them to have a separate line in the price guide....you think? I don't know. Searching the internet has turned up nothing. That's why I am relying on the CT group to find some more info. Also noted that there is some detailed doubling in the date. Most likely machine/mechanical doubling, but still neat to see. :D
     
  8. Treashunt

    Treashunt The Other Frank

    jaca:
    The 'Price Guide' that you are referring to, by any chance is it by Frank Spadone?

    If so, you can pretty much discount most of what he says.

    Spadone is important in that he promoted the ideas of varieties long before most people collected them.

    However, he has many errors in his listings. Like (from memory, so the date is probably wrong) a Lincoln cent with a slanted digit in the date, last digit (say 1945). He didn't know that the 'slanted digit' was the result of damage from a coin counting machine.

    Still, his references are a great part of coin collecting history.
     
  9. jaceravone

    jaceravone Member

    Frank,
    It is the Numismatic News price guide.
     
  10. Treashunt

    Treashunt The Other Frank

    Interesting, I just checked (sorry, but I couldn't believe that it was in the monthly).

    And, there it was !

    1956 Double bar 5.

    Wow, whoda thunk!

    okay, I give up, no idea that these were still considered collectible enough to list them.

    Interesting, ya (I) learn something every day in this hobby!
     
  11. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    I'm right there with yah treashunt. I would have thought a simple die break would have been far too minor to rank in a monthly price guide.

    I'll caution you though, that although the price guide might say its worth a premium, you will be extremely hard pressed to find anyone willing to pay it. It is worth, for all practical purposes, the same as a regular 1956.
     
  12. jaceravone

    jaceravone Member

    Maybe these have recently been discovered/attributed, so the premium is not there now, but down the road may be worth something, especially if one of the big numismatic magazines gets ahold of it. Who knows.

    For one thing, I am no longer going to sell this. I will put it in my collection as a variety and enjoy it.

    Finding neat things like this is what collecting is all about. I will check and recheck and recheck coins for many years before I eventually part with them. Its all part of the learning process as well. I remember seeing this "double" bar on the quarter a long time ago and didn't think anything of it. Now I know to look for these and now you all know as well.
     
  13. jaceravone

    jaceravone Member

  14. Conder101

    Conder101 Numismatist

    You would think that but don't some guides still list the 1955 Bugs Bunny half dollar as well? And that is just a die clash. It could even come from more than one die.
     
  15. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    But the Bugs Bunny is different - it has a history of a significant premium, is well recognized by many collectors, and is interesting. And every single one I've seen has been from the same die, evidenced by the characteristic die polish lines trying to clean it up. Very few people have heard of the OP's coin, and there seems to be little premium associated with it.
     
  16. LSM

    LSM Collector

    Treashunt, I just checked my Variety and Oddity guide by Frank Spadone and yes the 1956 double bar quarter is listed in the guide. Spadone has it listed at $10 dollars in uncirculated condition.

    Lou
     
  17. jaceravone

    jaceravone Member

    Not that there is anything wrong with this statement, because it is true,,,,,,but we can always justify the value of a coin with a variety when it was found a long time ago and it has already garnered the interest of the collecting community. The longer the variety has been ingrained into our collecting heads, the more of a value it retains. But people tend to forget that, support of these varieties don't happen over night. For instance, I am looking at my Dads 1965 Handbook of US Coins (the blue book) and there is not one mention of the Bugs Bunny Franklin 10 years after it was minted. Had it been discovered by then??? Quite possibly, I don't know because I couldn't find the history on it, but obviously sometime between then and now it picked up in popularity because my 2007 Red book has it listed.

    This new 1956 Double 5 bar appears to be, by all accounts, a fairly new found variety. And if not newly found, then definitely newly publicized because it is being spoke about on different forums and now is in the written press with its price listing. Very little info is found on the internet, and only one source has this variety listed. But who won't say that in 10 or 20 years, this may be all the rage in coin collecting is to find this 56 Double 5 bar?

    I am not disagreeing with Physics statement by any means, because what he writes is true, but we should not forget that every coin at one time was new and never really commanded value right off the press. Value was later determined by supply and demand and ultimately, popularity. The Bugs Bunny Half is popular and people are willing to pay a few more bucks for it. The 56 double bar not so popular.......yet..... and only time will tell what people will pay. In the mean time, I am holding onto mine and I have found another coin to start cherrypicking. :smile
     
  18. Pocket Change

    Pocket Change Coin Collector

    jaceravone, keep up the good fight. I will make sure there is a lit candle on the window sill.

    I agree 100% with you. The various comments about "not much of a premium" are thrown out much as sand is thrown over campfires.

    This is not like one of the errors the guys with the microscopes have found. If you can see it with the naked eye, then I think it has HUGE potential.

    Your comments about examining and re-examining your coins is spot on.
     
  19. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    Jacer, what you say is also true - possibly. The thing with these minor "varieties" or errors is that they take a great deal of promoting to catch on with the collecting public, and even then they more often than not have a great deal of activity and then fade away. The bugs bunny is unusual in that it has stayed popular for all these years. It took a master promoter, the great Max B. Mehl himself, to make these as popular as they are.

    Your coin does not have a great promoter, or a clever name, or a brilliant marketing strategy. Just look at the so-called "bootstrap" Lincoln that everyone has been talking about. Its a simple die crack, just like yours, but everyone has been talking about it because new Lincoln's are incredibly hot right now, someone came up with a clever name, and has been spending a great deal of effort marketing it. However, I'm pretty sure that it will fade away soon, just like all these extra thumbs and whatnot they're finding.

    Very few of these varieties ever get popular, very few have a clever name, and even fewer remain popular. I'm not saying yours isn't or won't, I'm just saying its unlikely.
     
  20. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    Pocket change, you are 100% correct about the naked eye thing - if you can see it clearly without magnification, that's a huge step in the right direction. That's why the 1955 DDO is worth so much of a premium - not because its rare, but because its huge!
     
  21. Pocket Change

    Pocket Change Coin Collector

    Ah yes. If I understand Coin Collecting history, there were a lot of efforts by coin dealers pushing the 1955 "poor man's double die".

    As I understand it, the "poor man's double die" was a very common occurance, but dealers at the time pumped and promoted it to the extent that these "poor man's" pennies were sold for way more than they were worth.
     
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