Thursday, September 12, 2013

United States Coin of the Week: Outstanding MS-64 1806 Quarter Dollar Highlights our September Americana Sale

By Frank Van Valen, Numismatist and Cataloger, U.S. Coins. Based on the lot description by James Matthews, Senior Numismatist and Consignment Director, U.S. Coins.

An outstanding NGC-certified MS-64 1806 quarter dollar will be one of many highlights in our upcoming September 2013 auction event in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia. Lot 3096 in our Official Auction of the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Exposition has a long and important pedigree attached to it, including such names as Wayte Raymond and John Jay Pittman, to which will be added that of the fortunate bidder who takes it home from the upcoming auction.

This attractive golden-gray specimen exhibits pale rose and blue iridescence in a bold light source, a grand amount of supportive luster, and a strike that is finer than typically seen for the variety – Browning-2, Rarity-2.

The surfaces exhibit clash marks on both sides and there are a group of advanced die cracks on the reverse. A cud later forms on the reverse above TATE in STATES, but the specimen offered in this sale is from an earlier reverse die state and has yet to form the mentioned cud.

Quarter dollars of the Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagle style, as offered, were made in just four years – 1804, 1805, 1806, and 1807. After 1807, no quarters were produced until 1815, and those were of a new style. Fortunately for today’s collectors, the 1806 is not a major rarity, and though it is scarce in high grades, examples such as this beautiful piece are not priced to the stratosphere, and when located, make excellent additions to advanced U.S. type sets as well as early quarter holdings.


If past auction history is any gauge, all eyes will be on our Philadelphia event, and many of those same eyes will be on the beautiful 1806 quarter as it crosses the auction block. If you mean to have an example as fine as this piece, your best bet is to bid with tenacity, or else the lovely MS-64 1806 quarter may find its way into a world-class collection other than yours.

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