John's Certifiable Type Set
25c STANDING LIBERTY, TYPE 2 (1917-24)

Owner Comments:

The current Standing Liberty Quarter (SLQ) shows a complete full head when examined in hand. There is a die crack from the rim to Miss Liberty's eye. The reverse has the beautiful aqua-blue tint that I have found on SLQ coins in the near, gem and superb gem (grades 64 and up.)

The 1920-S FH a bit of an odd coin for surviving population numbers. The '20-S has the second highest mintage figure for any San Francisco Standing Liberty Quarter with a generous mintage figure of over 6 million (6,380,000.) Yet, it is remarkably uncommon in full head (FH). Cline opines that this is likely due to the fact that collecting by both date and mint mark did not come into vogue until the 1930's and the production of the "Penny Boards" made by Wayet Raymond out of Wisconsin. Another theory, which I like better and think more likely, is that with plans for such a high mintage the dies may have been used longer than normal. In order to facilitate the extension of the life of each die the stamping pressures were consistently lower than ideal for a sharp strikes. The present example shows considerable die deterioration with a fracture extending from the "E" in LIBERTY through the eye of Miss Liberty and her ear hole. A second die break is noted on the left wall with a third on the right wall. Another die crack is seen traversing at the top of the numeral in the date and yet another extending from the side wall to the 2nd "T" in TRUST. Cline suggests that <2% have FH which seems high as that would result in at least 120,000 starting as Full Head strikes. NGC has designated 78 of 611 (~13%) and PCGS has designated 112 of 1044 (~10%) as of September 2018.

If you consider the percentage of coins graded FH as a function of the total mintage the number is 0.0003%. Obviously this method has flaws but so to does the method of calculating the number of FH coins from the number graded. That method will overestimate the number of Full Head SLQ due to 2 factors. First, SLQ that appear to have a FH are morelikely to be sent in for grading all other factor being equal. Second, coins that grade FH are more likely to be resubmitted for upgrade as they carry a higher premium than non Full Head SLQ. Third, coins that are in the AU to low mint state range with flat head are much less likely to be submitted for grading than those coins with a FH. So I think that the rate of FH is closer likely closer to 1%.