Time to get out those Maine quarters again and also grab your magnifiers. It seems the U.S. Mint has produced 2 varieties of the lighthouse on the reverse of the coins.

It appears that the window on the side of the tower differs from the coins produced at the Philadelphia Mint and the ones made at the Denver mint. Also it is being reported that the detail is much sharper on the Philadelphia coins than the Denver ones. Mint officials have confirmed these discoveries. Early die strikes are now being highly collected and show the best variations. You will need a good magnifier to clearly see the difference.

The story was released in the Sept. 30 issue of Coin World magazine. CoinWor;ld.com . This is big news for coin collectors and from past trends could result in a highly collected and very valuable variety. Time will tell.

I'll give you a quarter for each and every one!!



Dan

The story is not available to non-subscribers to Coin World. Could you post part of the story? Are there pictures of the differences?

Suzanne

I think I donated all my Maine quarters to the indians down at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

Bob

The article states that the window on the Philadelphia coins seems to have panes while the Denver coins do not. This difference was confirmed by CoinWorld as well as the lessening of detail on the lighthouse on the Denver coins when compared to the Philly ones.

Mint spokesman Mike White, said the variety could have been caused in two ways: during the manufacture of the coinage dies and during the striking of the coins due to variations in the pressure.

Denver and Philadelphia operate individual die shops. However, all designing and engaving of the original models is done at the Philadelphia mint. Maybe the engravers decided to test the collectors alertness to detail. Hmm, sounds familiar doesn't it!

There were photos but they weren't very clear because of the magification, but the window panes do show on one and not the other. The differences will best be seen on uncirculated coins since wear will quickly eradicate the subtle additional details.

I will check em out tonight! Anyone come across it?

does this create a collectible value for either coin or both?

Time and interest will effect the future value. This has happened on several instances especially with mint marks and can sometimes create a variety worth hundreds of dollars and other times create nothing more than a stir among collectors. It will be one to watch!