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1808 $2.50 Bust NGC MS62

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:100.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1808 $2.50 Bust NGC MS62
<b>1808 &#36;2.50 Capped Bust. NGC graded MS62.</b> The 1808 quarter eagle is one of the most desirable one-year Type issues in the entire U.S. gold series, a coin. It has long been known that this issue is required for completion of any type set. It is a source of great pleasure, and understandably so, therefore, when we have the opportunity to offer a Mint State representative. This attractive &#39;62-quality coin is fully endowed with light green-gold to orange-gold shades that alternate in supremacy depending upon the angle of the light striking the coin. Modest hairline tendencies are noted in the fields are the major grade-establishing elements. The strike is typical for this issue: uneven in the outer or peripheral areas, although we do note pleasing sharpness of detail within the central hair curls and eagle feathers that the photographs amply show. Detail around the periphery, however, is more hit-or-miss. Since the release of Walter Breen&#39;s encyclopedia in 1988, where Breen estimated just three coins extant in Mint State, others have surfaced and been submitted to the main grading services. To this day, the 1808 quarter eagle remains extremely elusive at that level. The coin is in NGC holder 686260-008.

The engraver who would become famous to coin collectors as John Reich was named Johann Matthaus Reich. Born in 1767 in Bavaria, Reich&#39;s parents were Johann Christian Reich and Maria Magdalena. John Reich left Europe around the turn of the 19th century to avoid the Napoleonic Wars, and entered into indentured servitude in America for one John Brown, a silversmith in Philadelphia. Upon being hired by the U.S. Mint as Assistant Engraver, Reich was appointed to modify the designs for all denominations then in production. For the quarter eagle, Reich&#39;s work made its first appearance in 1808. As with other dies by Reich, the first die marriage that he engraved has his secret mark evident as a notch or nick on the outermost point of star 13 on the obverse. This die proved to be the only one that he would complete for this denomination. The total delivery for 1808 consisted of a miniscule total of 2,710 pieces! The quarter eagle, a rather ignored denomination at the time, was not struck again until 1821, and then with a new design by Robert Scot being introduced in that year.

A HANDSOME MINT STATE 1808 QUARTER EAGLE <b>&#40;PCGS # 7660&#41;</b> <i>
The Springdale Collection of Early U.S. Gold Coins.</i>

Our item number 120418