Expert: PAPAJACK - 8/12/2008

Question
I have a 1893 O barber quarter with the O being directly over the D in Dollar on the reverse of the coin.  I have seen many barber quarters and all of the mint marks are between the R and the D in the bottom of the reverse.  Someone said its called a moved mintmark but I have never heard of that.   thanks fred

Answer
Hello Fred,                     

I have not seen the one you are talking about but it is common in those years to have the Mint Mark Letter vary in its placement.
All dies were made in Philadelphia and sent to the branch mints. It was there that tool and die workers of different levels of experience punched the mint-mark letter into a finished die by hand.
Some were done by apprentices and some by seasoned professionals. Either way the punch would be a bit left, right, high or low of its true
position. This is sometimes called mintmark left (MML).

These are not considered errors but varieties. There is no particular premium for the miss-placed mint mark and even re-punched mint (called RPM's) marks are more collected as a variety and sought after by error coin collectors.

So the value of the coin stands on its grade for the year it was made.

For information on true error coins look for the book "The ERROR COIN ENCYCLOPEDIA" by Arnold Margolis (not sure of the spelling).

It goes into detail about how errors have occurred at the mint.  Your Library may have a copy or it is inexpensive to buy.

I also want to mention COMBINED ORGANIZATION of NUMISMATIC ERROR COLLECTORS ASSOCIATION; they are the ultimate experts in the error coin field.  
See          http://conecaonline.org/
CONECA is a national numismatic organization devoted to the education of error and variety coin collectors. CONECA focuses on many error and variety specialties, including doubled dies, Re-punched mint marks, multiple errors, clips, double strikes, off-metals and off-centers just to name a few.

PapaJack