Re-Engraved Die: 1941 Washington Quarter Red-001

I believe this coin to be an example of RED-001, the rare 1941 quarter with a re-engraved die. I first learned about this variety from Willburton's RED-001 article last fall, and did some additional reading on the original Variety Vista 1941 25¢ RED-001 variety article. When I read that article on October 16, 2024, I added the '41 re-engraved die to my daily search list. After 143 days of searching, I think I finally got it right! =)







The re-engraving is straightforward. The rightmost leaf pair above the AR of dollar has been manually retouched on the die. The upper leaf tends to be more intact on 1941 silver quarter strikes, but the lower leaf often disappears completely. The tip of the upper leaf is re-engraved, but the entire missing bottom leaf has been cut back into the die.

Moving left above LL, the tip of the lower leaf in that pair has also been retouched. Lastly, the left tiny leaf that protrudes from the crossed branches has been retouched along the lower edge.

The dark toning isn't my usual cup of tea, but I will concede that it's quite dramatic.

Special thanks to Willburton for bringing this variety into the CCF spotlight. Without his article, I would have never even known that it existed. His pictures were very useful in confirming the variety. A big thanks to Dr. Wiles and Variety Vista as well—it is awesome that we have such a great resource to learn about rare and obscure American coins.