Would appreciate members' opinions on this 1932-D quarter. I don't know what an RPM for this date looks like, only that one is listed at CONECA. The D looks smaller than normal, but the trace below it looks to be the right size and position. Or is it some sort of alteration? Thanks in advance.
acanthite, The Mintmark appears to be Strike (Machine) Doubled! Also, I was looking for the characteristics and Die Markers for a 1932-D RPM but I could not find a listing with Coneca. Where did you see that Coneca has one listed for this Date and Mint? Frank
Apologies, it wasn't CONECA, it was here: http://overdate1.tripod.com/coinvarieties/id5.html The variety is listed as K25-10 Breen, Spadone 1229a BTW, there is an old Cointalk thread by Speedy regarding a 1932-D mint mark variety, but what I have looks different. http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=12858&highlight=1932-D+quarter
I've seen this on many many 1932-D quarters----I'm 98% sure that it isn't an RPM. Machine doubling might be right...or an added mintmark....I bought one of these and returned it to the dealer because I didn't feel alright about it. Spadone listed many varieties that aren't listed any more because they couldn't be proven....and I think this is the case with this coin. Speedy
acanthite, I went to the website that you gave but without any pictures, there is no way to compare your's with the one listed! However, I believe that your's has a Strike (Machine) Doubled Mintmark! The underlying (questionable) Mintmark is flat and appears less than 1/2 the height of the Primary Mintmark and all to often the Primary Mintmark is filled due to the slippage (caused to the Primary design element) when the bounce (sometimes called chatter) occurs that causes the doubling of the Mintmark. I see the same type of doubling on many of the Silver Washington Quarters (especially the 1963-D and 1964-D) and usually there is slight Machine Doubling on a few other design elements (parts of the Eagle, the Olive branches and/or Lettering). Frank
I agree with huntsman53 that looks like machine doubling. I checked some of my reference books and the only one that lists a 1932 D doubled mint mark is Frank G. Spadone book and as Speedy said Spadone did list some varieties that could not attributed. One of my other book lists a 1932 D with "a ghost outline of a larger D, an artifact of machine damage doubling, is seen north and east of the final D." Must be pretty common on the 1932 D quarters if they had to put that statement in the book. Lou
I appreciate everyone's input on this question, thanks! Huntsman, that was a great detailed explanation of what can occur to the mintmark during machine doubling. In hand I see doubling only on the tops of the eagle wings (not really visible on the attached photo), but none on the olive branches. I looked around the D for evidence of die polish lines but could not distinguish any (die polish lines = less likely added mintmark). However, the grade might be a bit low to use such a diagnostic. LSM, thanks for looking up that info from the guide book, it does describe this particular mintmark fairly well.
The theory I have always heard for the 32D, was that if the mintmark looks bad, then the coin is genuine, and if the mintmark looks alright, then the coin is probably bad. :rolling:
