I'm trying to find out the number of reeds on the edge of an 1838 Seated Liberty Quarter. Does anyone have one handy they could count the reeds on, or does anyone happen to know this number offhand?
Interesting. Thanks for checking. I was hoping it would be 112. Do you know if multiple collars were used for seated liberty quarters in 1838?
It's not the easiest thing to count either, but it's diagnostically relevant for studying die marriages. For example, two die marriages of small capped bust quarters had intermediate collar changes. When you look at when those collars were in use it allows for better identification of the die emission order or identification of possible re-marriages. Small capped bust quarters used 4 different collars throughout the series, but while 3 of the collars saw relatively heavy use, the 4th collar was both significantly lower in reed count and exclusively used in 1838. Since they did the switch from the capped bust to the seated liberty that year, I was curious if there was any collar overlap between the two series.