I found this article for any of you Guam quarter collectors. I know there are a couple of you out there who have these Guam quarters. Have you opened up that $10 roll of yours from Bank of Guam? I have to admit that I haven’t even begun to think about opening mine up.
When you finally decide to open that roll, take a good look at what’s inside. Floyd Howze found a Double-Die Guam quarter. A Double-Die coin is a coin that was struck from a die that had a partial or full doubled image on it. The doubling comes from mistakes in the die hubbing process, where more than one image is transferred from the hub to the coin die.
So when you finally see your Guam quarters. Take a closer look. You’ll never know if you have one of these special ones. I forgot to mention, avid coin collectors will buy these coins. There’s one on eBay that’s at $50 right now.
By Ken Potter, Numismatic News
Floyd Howze of North Carolina sent in the first report to Numismatic News of a 2009-P Guam Territorial quarter with an obverse doubled die. The variety is typical of the obverse doubled dies that have been seen on many dates and types of the state quarter series with centralized doubling restricted to Washington’s earlobe.
The underlying secondary image is south of the primary image of the ear. Diagnostic die markers (fingerprints) specific to this variety include die breaks through the designer/engravers’ initials on the base of bust, a die crack above Washington’s eye (what appears to be a horizontal die crack further up is a bag mark) and on the reverse, a die crack centered at the top of the island.
I listed it in the Variety Coin Register on July 17, 2009, for the date, Mint, denomination and type as VCR#1/DDO#1.
He also sent in a 2009-P Guam quarter with a die clash on the reverse, which shows raised distorted areas in the field to the right-center of the island. Generally speaking, die clashes are a low interest variety type, but I always like to show the first one or two that get reported for any of the new state/territorial quarters.
Another Guam quarter from Howze features a rather large though shallow die break that is centered on the top of the island. This one is similar to the shallow die break used as a marker for his Guam doubled die except that it is larger. This has turned out to be a very common area of die breakage for this issue. Some folks on eBay are referring to this as an “extra island,” which it is not.
Ken Potter is the official attributer of world doubled dies for the Combined Organizations of Numismatic Error Collectors of America and for the National Collectors Association of Die Doubling. He also privately lists other collectible variety types on both U.S. and world coins in the Variety Coin Register. He is a regular columnist in Numismatic News’ sister publication, World Coin News, where he writes the Visiting Varieties column. More information on either of the clubs or how to get a coin listed in the Variety Coin Register may be obtained by sending a long, self-addressed envelope with 60 cents postage to P.O. Box 760232, Lathrup Village, MI 48076, or by contacting him via e-mail at [email protected]. An educational image gallery may be viewed on his Web site at www.koinpro.com.
References:
https://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=7052
https://www.coin-gallery.com/cgstanton3.htm
