Only 2 die marriages have been identified. A single pair of dies was used to strike all business strikes. Neither die was used for proofs. A single proof variety paired a different obverse die with the reverse die used for almost all original proofs issued from 1840 through 1854. Attribution of proofs is simple since their obverse die has neither the die doubling nor the misplaced digits that are characteristic of the business strikes. 1844 Die MarriagesThe following table summarizes the known die marriages for 1844:
OC-1 is the only business strike die marriage. By Liberty Seated dollar standards, it’s scarce, but not rare. The dies are normally clashed, the clashing most visible in the field under Miss Liberty’s right arm. We’ve seen an example with perfect dies, but this die state seems to be extremely rare. OC-1 is an interesting die marriage. The obverse die is doubled. The horizontal shield lines appear as sets of 4 rather than 3, since the doubling was offset by almost exactly the width of a single line. As a result, it’s often called the “quad stripes” variety. The obverse also contains misplaced digits, 18 in the gown. It’s been listed as MPD-001. These features don’t increase the rarity, since they appear on all business strikes, but they have increased the interest in this date. We’ve included this variety as one of our Top-30. OC-P1 is the only known proof die marriage. Of the 15 or so estimated survivors at least 4 are mishandled or lightly circulated. Three of these are in problem-free PCGS holders. The remainder are holdered as problem-free and vary from PR61 to PR66. The finest known is a PR66 Cameo example slabbed by NGC and pedigreed to the Eliasberg and Sweet collections. Breen mentions a possible second obverse, Breen 5432, with triple (normal) stripes. We believe that any example with a normal, non-doubled obverse is a proof.
|
Emission Order |
Die Marriage |
Comments |
1 | OC-1 |
The proof emission sequence is equally uninteresting.
Emission Order |
Die Marriage |
Comments |
1 | OC-P1 |
The table below shows the characteristics that allow quick identification of the die marriages.
Die Marriage |
Obv. Die |
Rev. Die |
Right Base of 1 |
1 Verticle |
Grid |
Keys to Identification |
OC-1 | 1 | A | L QTR | L | 4-5.0 | Obverse:   Low date, RB of 1 is L QTR. Doubled die. MPD
Reverse:   Heavy die lines above the eagle’s left wing. |
OC-P1 | P1 | 1840 PA | R QTR | H | 5-2.0 | Obverse:   High date, RB of 1 is R QTR. NO die doubling and NO MPD's
Reverse:   Defects on A3. |
Photo credits:
Obverse and reverse full photos:   1844 PCGS PR64 CAC, ex. Gene Gardner, from the Heritage archives. |
Copyright © 2015-2021, by Dick Osburn and Brian Cushing, All rights reserved. |