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Sale 87
Lot 1344
1798. Wide Date BD-2 Rarity 5. NGC graded AU-55. A nice untoned example of this elusive rarity.The strike is sharp and the surfaces are most handsome, with minimal signs of handling and precious little wear. As a type, the Capped Bust quarter eagles are downright rare, they are seldom offered or seen and the numbers minted were tiny. John Dannreuther in his book on gold varieties estimates that only 480 to 838 were struck of this die pairing. From that meager beginning a scant 45 to 55 examples survived at all. This is one of the finer pieces to exist.
It is interesting that these early gold coins offered no stated value on the coins themselves. Certain coins in this period did, often on the edges where their value was noted, or in fractions as on the copper coins. The larger silver coins did have values noted, starting with the quarter dollars of 1804, the half dollars on their edges beginning in 1794 along with the silver dollars in that year. Why there was no value notation on gold coins is not recorded. Although back when these 1798 quarter eagles were struck, there was quite a variety of coinage in circulation in the United States, much of it England and Europe along with Spanish coins. These were all weighed when used for transactions, and merchants all kept balance scales and weights to properly determine the value of the coins being tendered. Hence the "value" of a quarter eagle we determined by its weight on the scale, with a known purity common to other coins in circulation in that era.
Another fact that is most interesting is that the reverse dies used to strike these quarter eagles were also used to strike dimes as they were virtually the same size. Perhaps this explains why no denomination or value was used on these dies. Die sharing across denominations was a matter of efficiency, but was only known to have been used on these quarter eagles and dimes through 1807.
There are far more reasons to own one of these prized quarter eagles than not, they offer legendary rarity and are usually found in high grades. Their designs are captivating, and offer hours of intricate study with a magnifier. Each die was hand engraved after using the head punch and eagle punch first, then the dies were laid out with letters, the date and stars. Sometimes stars were slightly double punched when tapped into position on the die itself and these traces give a personal feel to each of the coins struck, as you can see the engraving touches and challenges. As such these Capped Bust quarter eagles are delightful to own, why not start with this scarce issue today? (PCGS # 7649) .
Estimated Value $25,000 - 30,000.
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