Mint marks on barber quarters are all over the place... on the earlier pieces it was not unusual to see a mint mark in this position. Believe it or not, this is a normal mint mark placement.
All my other Barber's mint marks are dead center of tail feather and this one was the odd one Thanks Dutch I learn something new today!
I seem to remember reading that mintmarks were placed off center in order to prevent them from touching the tail feathers and lettering.
That would make sense... I wonder why they changed them later? People prob. had the same reaction that jello had.... that's weird.
A commentary, by David W. Lange, may add some insight. http://www.ngccoin.com/news/enews/ngc_enews_0406june.htm
There;s only one possiblity when it comes to a mint mark a mint mark could only be dispalced not misplaced there;s a differance between a displacement and misplacement If a mint mark was touching another element of the coin near the date of a lincoln cent for example like a digitit it would be called a displaced mint mark not a misplaced mint mark the correct term is displanced or the tail of a baber quarter that would be a displaced mint mark also Now jello if the mm was touching the tail section of the Feather it would be a displanced mm and there;s a premium for them because a mint mark should not touch another element of the coin A misplaced letter or dropped letter for instance would be a misplaced letter because it would be on the field of the coin know as misplaced letter so the correct terminology would be a displanced mint mark not a misplaced mint mark just want to clear that up Alien jazec
Better try clearing things again. Displaced means to be moved from its current location. So a displaced mintmark would be one that has been hit and shoved to one side, in other words damaged. Misplaced means to either be lost, or to be placed in a location other than the one it is intended to be in. Well the mintmark isn't lost and since other dies have the mintmark in that same location then it is proper and the mintmark is not misplaced. You just might use the term misplaced for mintmarks that overlap other design features because in most cases that is NOT where the mintmark is intended to be. (On some early gold coins the mintmark is large and the area it was to be placed in was small and it wasn't possible ot not overlap design details. Those mintmarks would be normal not "misplaced") But if it is just touching the details it may still be consider to be properly placed.
Side note: On the 1897 S quarters the S placement as show is normal. However, there is a scarce variety with the MM centered under the eagle's tail. Very collectible. There are also other dates that have different placements.
It is ironic in that a coin with a MM in it's originally intended placement, would in fact be scarce, while one with the MM far to the right, is not! Frank
