Guernsey 4 Doubles of 1864: obverse and reverse dies

This page displays illustrations for Guernsey 4 doubles 1864 obverse and reverse dies. All images are taken by myself. See also the main page dedicated to my Guernsey collection.

The information about dies and their pairings comes from A. Ritchie. W. Exley sent me a copy of his article (which can be found in the bibliography). Numbers were assigned partially by Exley and partially by myself.

To understand this guide, please read die descriptions below. Obverse die properties are in the rose color, reverse die properties are in the light blue color.

	Obverse dies		obv. 1	obv. 2	obv. 3	obv. 4, 4*	obv. 5
	no. of stalks in shield leaves		3	3	1	1	1
	center leaf				short	long	short
Reverse dies	4/5 overdate	U/B position
rev. A	yes	B higher	E10	E10A	E9B
rev. B, B*	no	U higher			E9	E9C, E9D
rev. C	no	level					E9A

Obverse dies are mostly distinguished by leaves on top of the shield.

	Obverse. 1. Leaves on shield have 3 stalks. Centre stalk slightly closer to the right than to the left. Bottom front leg of the lowest lion is long.
	Obverse 2. Leaves on shield have 3 stalks, evenly spaced. Bottom front leg of the lowest lion is short.
	Obverse 3. One stalk, centre leaf short. Right leaf overlaps centre leaf.
	Obverse 4. One stalk, centre leaf long. Right leaf has stalk joining centre stalk close to top of the shield. Left leaf has no stalk. Small break in right-hand downstroke of N in "GUERNESEY"
	Obverse 4*. Die 4 in a deteriorated state, most noticeable in the letters of "GUERNESEY".
	Obverse 5. One stalk. Small lions; bottom lion well clear of base of shield. Centre leaf short. Left leaf has a stalk.

Reverses are classified on the 4/5 overdate and relative position of letters B and U in DOUBLES.

	Reverse A. Top of B slightly higher than top of U. "DOUBLES" about 17.5 mm. 4 of date is struck over 5.
	Reverse B. Top of U higher than top of B. "DOUBLES" about 17 mm.
	Reverse B*. Die B in a deteriorated state, particularly DOU of DOUBLES.
	Reverse. C. U tilted slightly left but top almost level with top of B. DOUBLES about 17 mm.