I was reading about the 1952 Washington Quarter "Super Bird" tonight and checked some Proof Washington Quarter sets I acquired a while back. Lo & behold...2 out of 4 are the "Super Bird" variety! Here are my 1950-1964 Washington Quarter proof sets... I can't get a good picture of the variety with my camera, but here's a picture of the variety I found online...for display purposes. Mine look the same.
I didn't know about the "Super Bird" before tonight. It's speculated that a Mint employee tagged the Eagle's breast on one of the proof dies with a San Francisco MM stamp...as an homage to the popular Superman TV program.
I didn't know where I should to post this thread. Is it an error if it's intentionally done by a Mint employee? Does anyone know how to classify this variety?
From PCGS :The 1952 Proof Washington Quarters have proved to be extremely challenging but yet very rewarding when found with the Superbird variety and more rewarding if found with cameo or deep cameo surfaces. Out of the 81,980 total proof sets produced for 1952, many sets have been broken apart for many years by enthusiasts and collectors in hopes of finding scare coins displaying cameo and deep cameo surfaces. Today, finding original unopened proof sets is very difficult but for knowledgeable collectors this provides a good opportunity to cherry pick the Superbird variety on opened sets, as many collectors are unaware of the Superbird variety and have only searched for the cameo and deep cameo coins. Additionally, the Superbird variety is currently only found on 1952 Proof Washington Quarters. The Superbird variety displays the letter "S" on the center of the Eagle's chest on the reverse of the coin. The top portion of the "S" is more prominent and the lower part of the "S" is more faint but still detectable with a 5X glass. This variety is now widely recognized by many variety specialists and many numismatic references as well as PCGS under the Variety Attribution program. It is definitely worth examining all 1952 proof sets or 1952 proof quarters, as finding the Superbird variety will not only make your day enjoyable but it will also be financially rewarding.
If this was done to just one die, it would be nice to know how many coins were struck per die. I "thought" proof dies were used for 1000 coins per die, but the info I find now is 250 coins per die. Does anyone have inside info of how many proof coins were produced (per die) in 1952?
I found this... "An interesting variety to look for within the 1952 Proof Set is the so-called “Superbird” Washington Quarter. On the reverse some quarters, a distinctive “S” appears in the center of the bird’s chest, reminiscent of Superman’s costume. It is suspected that a mint employee added the “S” intentionally to a single reverse die. This suggests that perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 examples of the variety may have been created, with an even smaller number of survivors." https://proofsetguide.com/1952-proof-set/ This seems to suggest that a single reverse proof die was used to strike "15,000 - 20,000" coins...in 1952. Does anyone know if that makes sense?
Dug up a thread that is a little old. But I just snagged a beautiful example. A true black and white cameo. Surprisingly, the S can be seen with the naked eye:
These are easy to find. Watch out buying these on eBay: a lot of sellers price them as rarities, which they are not.
Don’t forget while you’re at it to also check for the FS-902 Superbird which is actually more rare than the 901.
Welp, normal is uh…normal. For the 902 you’re looking under the talons and arrow bundle at the tail feathers. Hard to image though I have some micro shots, but would have to actually get up to find them…below is a PCGS image of 1 I used to own. The easiest tell is the line on the left. Variety vista I bet has better images.
