1854-S QUARTER EAGLE OFFERED

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 16, April 22, 2018, Article 14

The 1854-S Quarter Eagle was also struck in similarly low quantities. Although more found their way into circulation, it is also a rare and valuable coin today. One is offered in the upcoming Heritage Central States sale. See the online lot description for a full listing of known specimens. -Editor

1854-S $2 1/2 VF35 PCGS Secure. Ex: Davis-Graves, Norweb. The present offering of a VF35 PCGS 1854-S quarter eagle ranks among the most memorable lots in this sale; in fact, the 1854-S quarter eagle is among the most memorable U.S. coin issues of all time, regardless of the particular venue. Only 246 examples were produced in the first year of operations at the San Francisco Mint, and it appears that all of them quietly slipped into circulation. Legendary Fort Worth, Texas, coin dealer B. Max Mehl discovered the first reported specimen in 1910 through his "extensive advertising," a piece he apparently sold privately to prominent Wisconsin collector H.O. Granberg.

In addition to Granberg, the list of former owners of 1854-S quarter eagles today is a Who's Who of American numismatic luminaries of several generations: Atwater, Clapp, Wolfson, Boyd, Norweb, Eliasberg, Bass. The acquisition of this Choice VF specimen will confer instant numismatic immortality on its possessor.

Interestingly, Mint Marks author Augustus Heaton was apparently quite confused on the rarity of some of the early mintmarked gold issues. He seems to have been aware of the production of the 1854-S quarter eagle and half eagle (mintage 268 coins, of which but three are known today), but he calls only the five dollar issue "exceedingly rare." His pamphlet, published in 1893, says of S-mint quarter eagles:

"The San Francisco issue is from 1854 to '79, except '55, '64 and '74. The great prize of the series is 1858. 1876 is scarce, but no other date should be so from the amount coined."

Today we know that San Francisco made no quarter eagles in 1858 -- and we wonder what mintage figure he was using for the 1854-S.

As our detailed roster below indicates, somewhere between a dozen and a dozen and a half examples -- no more -- can be traced today. No Uncirculated examples of the 1854-S quarter eagle are known, and any survivor is sure to cause fervent bidding among the many specialists in Western gold.

The San Francisco Mint opened on April 3, 1854, in a renovated building formerly occupied by Moffat and Co., striking its first gold coin, an 1854-S proof double eagle now in the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian. It is a mystery why San Francisco struck so few quarter eagles and half eagles during the year, as it produced a modicum of Type One gold dollars and a great quantity of double eagles and eagles -- in fact, the new branch mint struck every authorized gold denomination during the year except the three dollar gold. In the case of the quarter eagles, while the circumstances surrounding the low mintage are lost today, it continues a trend that persisted throughout the denomination's history at the Mint, to treat it as the "red-headed stepchild" of U.S. gold coinage. (The half eagle is even more curious, as the five dollar gold was a workhorse denomination with plentiful mintages for most of Mint history; whatever the circumstances were, they clearly were unique to the time, place, and economic situation; perhaps bullion depositors simply preferred the larger eagle and double eagle at the time when available parting acids made gold coinage feasible.)

"In addition to the low recorded mintage, the 1854-S has the distinction that in David Akers' survey it was the second rarest quarter eagle in terms of the number of auction appearances over the years, and was tied with the exceedingly rare 1806/5 overdate and the 1841. Only the 1814 variety with 13 reverse stars appeared less frequently."

To read the complete lot description, see: 854-S $2 1/2 VF35 PCGS Secure.... (https://coins.ha.com/itm/liberty-quarter-eagles/1854-s-2-1-2-vf35-pcgs-secure/a/1274-4314.s?ctrack=200071)