1953-D Washington Quarter RPM?

[Tom O.]

Hi. I am new here. My name is Tom. I did put up an introduction and look forward to interacting with other numismatic enthusiasts.

I came here as a recommendation to try to figure out exactly what I may have. I've found several silver Washington quarters that to me show signs of a repunched mint mark but I have not been able to identify them from the resources available so I wanted to see if I am missing something (not RPM) or maybe something yet to be found.

This 1953-D quarter seems to be actually a D/D/D. When I acquired this coin the shop had a jewelers microscope I was able to use and when I looked at the mint mark it looked to have two full steps of lines to show what appeared to be two different D's underneath each with a little different angle all going slightly east (the top of the back D is much thinner than the bottom). It's not as clear in my picture but regardless I couldn't find anything close in my searches for a similar RPM for this date/MM. However I did find one closely resembling it in the 1952-D/D but missing a couple key components. It may not be an RPM at all but just in the strike or when the mint mark was applied. Just not sure about this one. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Tom 1953-D WQ D over D.jpg

[MintErrors]

Welcome aboard.

Good photo !

In my opinion, this is probably machine doubling. It's basically damage. As the dies squeeze the blank (planchet) and get ready to release the coin, that ejection can result in the coin having some of the devices being damaged. The end result is that step like appearance. Many refer to this as machine doubling/damage or worthless doubling. If a RPM was that far off, it might result in the secondary mint mark showing more clues. The D looks like a normal mint mark . The mint mark is not deformed nor thicker.

For repunched mintmarks some people will create a photo overlay. They take a photo of a known documented example and the photo of the coin in question. By placing the same size photos on top of each other, they can see if the mintmarks are in the same actual place. One has to be careful not to post copyrighted photos on other websites without permission. Some will create these overlays in private as not to breach any copy righted rule.

Back then, every working die that required a mint mark was hammered into the working die by hand. The position can vary slightly but enough to aid in the attribution of the coin for a potential RPM. One has to remember, how many years have passed for this coin. More than likely they have found every one and they have been documented.

A few websites for self attribution of coins are:

Https://conecaonline.info

Http://varietyvista.com

Happy hunting.

[Tom O.]

Yeah I suspected but was not sure on hub doubling. Yea I searched both sites before posting just here to be sure. I suspected these were not true OMM's. I have two others that I suspect are the same.

[MintErrors]

Yeah I suspected but was not sure on hub doubling. Yea I searched both sites before posting just here to be sure. I suspected these were not true OMM's. I have two others that I suspect are the same.

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OMM's are over-mint marks like D over S, S over D.

Hub Doubling is related to a doubled die.

There were a ton of working dies made for that year and mintmark. They used to hand-punch in each mint mark into every working die that needed one.
That resulted in slight deviation of where a mintmark would be placed. You can look for common marks or pick up points on those coins. Meaning, you can locate some odd looking scratches, die cracks, die chips or other oddities and if they look the same and are in the exact same location then that quarter may have come from the same working die.

The working dies take a beating. They can strike well over 325,000 coins - som e up to 3x that amount before being retired. With a lot of stikes, the working dies are no longer sharp and prestine. They get a bit loose and when they do, the fine adjustments on the machine are no longer able to keep the coin or working die from moving ever so slightly. When that happens, it can create coins with machine damage doubling.

The working dies are created first. The mint mark is added later. If one suspects a coin to have a RPM and a DDO it raises some eye brows and concerns.
Typically it is caused by damage ( mechanical doubling, ejection doubling aka worthless doubling/ damage)
The doubled dies and a RPM DO exist but, there are not many.