A friend asked me to go through some of her coins to see if any were valuable. There are quite a few coins, and I may be asking for advice from you guys again. The bulk of her stuff was common spenders, but she had a couple of rolls of Delaware quarters, among which I found 7 spitting horses in various die states. Is there any market for these? Here is a sample:
Most definitely these are sought after, it takes a lot of scholastic research to find their value, because it will differ by buyer. It’s a continuation of the old paradigm: The value of these will wax and wane depending on how badly a buyer wants one.
I don’t know how sought after they are but I have a few of them, all of which I found in change. It’s a popular die error that will be worth a little bit more but I can’t say how much as it’s what a collector is willing to pay.
Back when I used to hunt through coins, I pulled out a bunch of them. After not even being able to get a dollar out of them on eBay, I eventually spent them all again. They are neat, but very common IMO.
Thanks for the different views! I know they were sought after at one time, but how rare can they be when I found seven of them going through my friend's 100 or so coins? I also find it interesting that there are that many of them out there. How long can a single cracked die keep working? Or perhaps, how many dies would have made that same crack, even given it is a weak point in the design?
Just now looking at some on ebay, and there are definitely at least two different dies involved. In some, the "spit" glances off the C, if it gets that far. In a few, as the one in this post, the "spit" glances off the A and continues to hit the R and, depending on the die state, it continues to the rim from there. In strong examples, such as the one I show, it also extends above the horse's head.
