Walter Breen
"Restrike"
A hitherto ignored anomaly is a presently unique copper piece with the obverse of an 1806 quarter and a previously undescribed Large Letters cent reverse.
Obverse: Quarter dollar die of Browning 5. Normal I, 1, lacks left base and about touches curl, 6 about touches bust, and small stars closely spaced with star 1 very distant from the curl. Quarters from this obverse die are normally cracked from the rim through left top of Y to the nose, however, the only known example of this muling is too weak in the upper half to show the crack.
Reverse: Large fraction and letters. Different from all other dies of this type: long fraction bar, extending abovecenter of 1 and inner left curve of final 0, and unusually close to both ribbons. The numerator is high and right of center with the denominator skewed to the right. Rightbase of (r)T is broken off, this T is below ED, and M is below and very close to E. RI join at their bases.
Dies worn and axially misaligned at striking. The upper half of the reverse is not legible.
Overstruck on a cent of an unknown date between 1808 and 1839.
Equivalents: Judd 38a. Pollock 6140.
Remarks: Struck outside the Mint from genuine dies discarded and sold as scrap metal (1816); the dies were probably among those bought by Joseph J. Mickley, though nobody has linked his name with this piece.
This may be the piece listed in Frank G. Duffield's list of countermarked coins, his listing numbered 1335 with the date misquoted: "Impression of obverse die of U. S. Quarter Dollar of 1805, on a U. S. Cent of about the same period." (Duffield, F. G., "A Trial List of the Countermarked Modern Coins of the World." The Numismatist, June, 1921, p. 230.)
Condition Census:
AG-3. Empire Coin Co. • Mail Auction #1, 11/1958: 83. Estimate $250. • David Henderson.