The 1950-D Over S and 1950-S Over D Quarters

Washington Quarters are ordinarily collected by date and mint mark, a challenge especially for those who seek coins in top grades given the rarity of certain issues at that lofty level. Making such numismatic objectives even tougher is the inclusion of die varieties, and there are many in the fold of Washington Quarters. Two of the most formidable are the 1950-D Over S and 1950-S Over D Quarters, over-mint-mark varieties that arose when the demand for certain branch-mint dies was just a little more than originally anticipated.

As scholars understand, the origins of both coins trace back to the Philadelphia Mint, which had received orders for dies representing the two branch mints that were then striking circulating coinage. In one case, the order for dies had come up one die short, so a mint worker overpunched a mint mark onto a die that had already received the other mint mark. The reverse happened at a later point to result in the creation of the other variety.

Authors Bill Fivaz and J.T. Stanton of Cherrypickers’ Guide to Rare Die Varieties of United States Coins (Whitman Publishing) describe the diagnostic for the 1950-D Over S as appearing in the upper left of the curve for the underlying “S” mint mark being most evident just to the left and above the “D” mint mark.

For the 1950-S Over D, the underlying “D” mint mark is boldly exhibited below the “S” mint mark.

The 1950-D Over S is the rarer of the two varieties, though the 1950-S Over D is quite scarce in its own right, with both coins proving quite desirable to collectors within both the Washington Quarter community and the larger error-variety circles in general.

In circulated grades the two varieties each sell for around $100 and up in moderately circulated grades, with Mint State examples being much rarer than their worn counterparts and thus more expensive. Collectors should budget between $500 and $750 for a decent uncirculated example of either, with MS65 specimens crossing into the lower four figures.