1739

1842-D $2.50 Liberty NGC AU55

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:7,500.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
1842-D $2.50 Liberty NGC AU55
Lustrous light yellow to greenish gold. Excellently struck and notably so, with far above average (but not 100% sharp) definition on the eagle's leg at the left. A prized D-mint date. Douglas Winter writes that no true Mint State pieces are traced, and that the six to eight are known at the AU level, seeming clustered around the About Uncirculated 53 category.

Interestingly, the latest edition of the Guide Book of United States Coins nonchalantly lists and prices "MS-60" coins at $25,000. In fact, one can read this reference and conclude that every variety of Charlotte and Dahlonega quarter eagle is obtainable in this grade! Reality, as they say with tongue-in-cheek, differs.

Date logotype for the 1842-D is high and more deeply impressed at the top of the date than at the bottom, indicating that the logotype punch was not driven in a true vertical alignment. On the reverse, the D mintmark overlaps a feather, with part of the feather visible at the center of the letter and a tiny part of the feather extending from the left of the upright.

Here, as in so many early branch mint quarter eagles we are confronted with a truly small production figure, in the present case only 4,643 coins from a single pair of dies, all employing the same repunched date. Nearly all have disappeared, with the result that the population today is extremely low, possibly existing only to the extent of several dozen specimens. David Akers makes the astute observation that the "1842-D is generally appreciated for its real rarity; it is every bit as rare as the 1854-D, 1855-D, and 1856-D, and certainly more rare than the latter two in grades better than EF."

(#7725)<p><i>The Gonzaga Collection</i>