I have Brownings book on Early Quarters and have the hardest time trying to attribute this piece. It has an interesting crack coming from between O and F that goes down through the eagles neck and through the shield to his claws. Any help would be appreciated. I know the Bust Half series well but this is a new area for me and definitely need some help!! Heritage Auctions gets credit for the photos but I enhanced and cropped them to make attributing this piece easier...hopefully.
https://www.pcgs.com/books/quarterdollars/ https://www.pcgs.com/books/quarterdollars/QuarterDollarsOf1834-001.aspx Not No. 1 (It does (yours) have a period), Not No.2 (this example (yours) does not have a tongue), Not No. 5 (this example (yours) does not have a tongue) This leaves us with No. 3 and No. 4: https://www.pcgs.com/books/quarterdollars/QuarterDollarsOf1834-002.aspx But, I don't see a resembalence of yours in any of those May be No.3 ???
Die pair 2H, B-3 without a doubt. 1834 has four reverses, easily told apart by the position of the stem over the C in 25 C. On die after stem is right over the right edge of the serif the C. On die G it's to the right of the C. On die H it's to the left of the serif the C. On die I it's above the center of the C. Yours is die H, and die H is only paired with obverse 2 (left edge of curl over the left side of 4) and that's B-3. On the other hand if that actually is a die crack on the reverse as you describe, then you have something new, because reverse H does not crack that way. It develops other cracks which I do not see on your coin, and the crack as you describe is not listed in the references. Better pictures would be most helpful.
I was thinking B3 myself but was a bit hesitant to call it that without further research. You have both been very helpful. I've attached 2 more pictures and an wondering if there are true die cracks or perhaps clashing.
I think a clash might be possible, but the dies would've had to have been misaligned when they clashed.
The clashing on the front seems to look typical. It would be a long shot for this to be a new variety I'm sure. At least now I have an attribution or as close as I can be at the moment. It seems to me that with that type of clashing I would find some of the tell tale die cracks the B3 develops over time.
