I've been focusing my serious collecting on small capped bust quarters (by die marriage) for the last couple of years. From what I've seen available at shows, LCS, and internet auction sites, I've felt for some time an apparent (and significant) disparity between the distribution of surviving dates and the reported mintage numbers for the years 1834 and 1835. I feel that, as with half dollars, a substantial amount of 1834 quarter dollars were minted in 1835 and reported with the 1835 mintage numbers. Here are the reported mintage numbers for small capped bust quarters: 1831 - 398,000 1832 - 320,000 1833 - 156,000 1834 - 286,000 1835 - 1,952,000 1836 - 472,000 1837 - 252,400 1838 - 366,000 According to these numbers, 1834 is the third lowest mintage year, but my gut feeling has always been that 1834 had a slightly higher representation than 1835 in surviving coinage, and was the most represented date. Other dates of comparable mintage like 1837 and 1832 seem much scarcer than 1834 by comparison. Out of curiosity, I aggregated the major TPG population reports for small capped bust quarters in collector grades (40+) and compared them to the mintage numbers. Here is what I found: 1831 9.47% of total minted 23.57% of TPG pop 1832 7.61% of total minted 6.00% of TPG pop 1833 3.71% of total minted 6.64% of TPG pop 1834 6.81% of total minted 21.60% of TPG pop 1835 46.45% of total minted 17.78% of TPG pop 1836 11.23% of total minted 5.80% of TPG pop 1837 6.01% of total minted 9.50% of TPG pop 1838 8.71% of total minted 9.12% of TPG pop So let's look at these results. First, 1831 looks way off with 23.57% of the TPG pop but only 9.47% of the total mintage for small capped bust quarters. This discrepancy is explainable when you take into account hoarding due to 1831 being the first year for small CBQs (and after a several year hiatus since the large CBQs were struck). Also, 1831 is the only year in this series with universally accepted major varieties (small and large letters). These factors have likely led to more coins of this date being preserved in higher grades, as well as being a driving force for increased TPG submissions. Also, while the number of collector grade 1831s is significantly higher than expected in the pop reports, my feeling from observing raw coins is that in the lower grades, 1831s are not this well represented overall, while 1834 and 1835 are represented in similarly high percentages across all grades. The percentage of total mintage to percentage of TPG population for the other dates seem reasonably in line with each other except for 1834-1835, and to a much smaller extent, 1836. Quarters dated 1834 came in at 21.60% of the population (over three times the expected amount!), and slightly over the 17.78% for 1835, which matched exactly with my gut feeling regarding the relative representation of these dates. In pursuing this topic further, I discovered Early United States Quarters by Steve M. Tompkins, in which he conjectures that based on the die wear progression between shared dies, the scarce 1834 B-3 die marriage must have been struck after the 1835 B-1 die marriage, and that likewise the rare die marriage 1834 B-5 may have been struck in 1835. I suppose aside from these shared die wear progression comparisons there is no good way to tell for sure how many of other more common marriages of CBQs dated 1834 were actually struck and reported in 1835, but based on the distribution of surviving dates, it may have been a highly significant amount. What is curious to me is the size of the discrepancy for 1836. It's not anywhere close to the discrepancy seen for 1834 and 1835, but it is larger than expected. I wouldn't be surprised if the off-year minting overlap was actually between 1834, 1835, and 1836 considering these were significant transition years at the mint.
Some great research you did, was a great read and i learned a ton about Capped Bust Quarters i didn't know. Kudos to you!
Thanks! It makes sense. If you think about the mint during this time period they were going through key personnel changes, facility changes and additions, anticipating major equipment changes for both pressing and hub engraving, and anticipating changes to coinage due to the political landscape of the time. I think the broader implication here is that the mint numbers for 1835 for other denominations may only be representative for the number of coins minted that year but not their dates. I don't think I would have even noticed the discrepancy had I not been collecting by die marriage and seeing these coins all the time, but at some point it became clear that the mintage for 1834/35 did not match up with the apparent distribution of dates. I have heard this was also the case for the half dollar, but I'm curious if other collectors have seen something similar for these years for other denominations.
I've also noticed that a large proportion of the surviving 1834 dated quarters are the B-1 variety. This is especially true in high grade. I'm not sure if this is another case of a slightly different design causing people to set them aside, some bank hoard released later, or just tough dies that didn't wear down.
Very true. Cherrypickers lists the B-1 as FS-25-1834-901 and says that it's a "rare variety" when anyone collecting this series knows they are the most common variety of the most common date. What it doesn't mention is that the coin has a different reverse with a deliberate design change and the die doubling (O/F) is largely irrelevant for spotting the variety. You bring up an interesting question. Since the O/F reverse was first used at the tail end of 1833 it seems logical that this design change was carried over to the first coins minted in 1834, after which they decided to revert to the three line stripes in the shield. Accordingly, it may be possible that the lion share of quarters accounted for in the mint count for 1834 were O/F and 1834s minted in 1835 were all other varieties. The reverse on the O/F is also a lower profile with rounder edges on the devices and would likely hold up better in circulation. Also, I haven't seen it mentioned in any of the texts on this series, but it seems to me that the '34s have a noticeably different face on the bust as well. The chin protrudes further, comes to more of a point, and is a lot rounder. The nose also has more of a downturn and a longer bridge with a slightly different curve. I can always tell a '34 before I've even looked at the date.
I love these too I wish they were more plentiful. One of my favorite type coins. I always have a look for them at coin shows but for the most part their cost is most of the time deeper than my pockets. Great series!
