2017-07-21 Fri

Twenty Cent coin specialist and author John Frost showcases an unknown obverse die struck 1875 Seated Liberty 20 cent coins at the Philadelphia Mint. Just three known die marriages for the 1875 Seated Liberty 20-cent coin is available. The marriages were executed with three obverse dies and two reverse dies.

According to the cataloguing system established in Double Dimes, the new discovery is attributed as Brunner-Frost 3.

Frost explains how such a discovery is small as the entire production of 1875 20 cent coins at the Philadelphia Mint for general circulation was 37,000 coins. In the month of May, at the Garden State Numismatic Association convention in New Jersey, a collector and a member of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club brought a number of 20-cent coins to the LSCC bourse table manned by Frost. The collector had purchased the Brunner-Frost reference on 20-cent coins in 2016 and wanted Frost’s confirmation that he had attributed the die marriages of his coins correctly.

The collector asked Frost if one of his coins was the scarce BF-2 1875 20-cent piece. The coin in question was graded and encapsulated About Uncirculated 58 proof like by ANACS, though not attributed by die marriage.

Frost examined the date position on the obverse and was ready to confirm the collector’s suspicion for a BF-2 attribution, but then he flipped the coin to examine the reverse. Frost told the collector that he expected a BF-2, but a BF-3 came into existence after Frost made the assertion.

According to Frost, the date position of the BF-3 and BF-2 are similar, the BF-2 die has a slightly recut 18 in the date, and the new obverse date is not re-cut and slightly right of the BF-2 date. Frost also added that the BF-3 coin was struck prior to BF-1 in the emission sequence.

The new emission sequence is identified as:

BF-3: Obverse 3, Reverse A

BF-1: Obverse 1, Reverse A

BF-2: Obverse 2, Reverse B

Frost said he documented the discovery piece and examined the results against his own 1875 BF-2, providing his findings to Brunner who confirmed Frost’s BF-3 determination for the collector’s 1875 Seated Liberty 20-cent coin.