DC-25c-1926S-01 Die Chip

Description

Among Standing Liberty Quarter collectors, the 1926-S holds a reputation as a key date with one of the lowest mintages in the series that ran from 1916 through 1930. This die chip variety, cataloged as DC-25c-1926S-01, documents a small fragment of the die surface that broke away during production at the San Francisco Mint, leaving a raised bump of metal on struck coins where the void in the die filled during the striking process. Die chips on Standing Liberty Quarters can be particularly difficult to attribute because the design's high relief accelerated die wear, and the exposed date area on the original Type I and recessed-date Type II designs both suffered rapid erosion in circulation. Hermon MacNeil's Standing Liberty design is celebrated for its artistic merit, but the high-relief elements placed extraordinary stress on dies, contributing to both accelerated wear and various forms of die failure including chips, cracks, and breaks. Finding any attributable die variety on a 1926-S Quarter is noteworthy given the date's scarcity, as fewer coins survived in grades high enough to preserve subtle die anomalies like chips.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Heritage Auction
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References