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Message:: [QUOTE="Jaelus, post: 2707436, member: 46237"]The 34s are easy to tell the variety. The B-1 had a reverse change with a totally different looking eagle (unique hub used only for the 1833 B-2 and 1834 B-1) and a 2 lines per stripe shield. The B-2 and B-5 used the proof reverse which also has a very distinct looking eagle (unique hub used only for the 1834 B-2, 1834 B-5, and 1835 B-2), and they are both very scarce. This coin has the regular eagle, however, meaning it could only possibly be a B-3 or B-4. On B-3 the spacing between 25  and C is close, and on B-4 the spacing is wide, so this is a B-4. It's an R1. The small capped bust quarters only have 36 varieties, so it doesn't take long to memorize them. You just need to realize that variety identification doesn't require an analysis of the entire coin. You can boil it down to one or two simple features per variety. For example, the 1836 B-3 is the most common of the 5 1836 varieties, and it's the only one where the eagle has a tongue, so when encountering an 1836, the first thing you look for is a tongue on the eagle and you go from there. For 1834s you check the type of the reverse, since that narrows it down to 1-2 varieties immediately, etc.[/QUOTE]