969

[L#0969] 1808 $2 1/2 P MS53

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:39,000.00 USD Estimated At:65,000.00 - 75,000.00 USD
[L#0969] 1808 $2 1/2 P MS53
Very clean surfaces with ample luster present; a few scattered hairlines from its time spent in circulation, which must have been a brief few years before having been retrieved by some long ago collector. Coin is housed in PCGS holder 50150985.

In 1808 John Reich redesigned the quarter eagle. In the previous year he had restyled the motif for the half dollar, creating what numismatists of a later generation would call the Capped Bust design. Now it was the quarter eagle's turn.

The diameter remained the same as earlier, 20mm, but the obverse and reverse motifs were changed. Miss Liberty now faces left, wearing a loose cloth cap secured by a band inscribed LIBERTY. Seven stars are to the left and six are to the right, and the date 1808 appears below.

The reverse depicts an eagle perched on an olive branch and holding three arrows. The motto E PLURIBUS UNUM is on a band or ribbon above. The inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the denomination 2 1/2 D are around the border. The denomination is stated for the first time on a quarter eagle.

The mintage figure of 2,710 on its own would suggest an item of great numismatic desire, but the demand for the coin as the only year of its design type has projected it into the first rank of popular rarities among American gold coins. It is believed that perhaps a few dozen exist, nearly all of which are in the grades of Very Fine or Extremely Fine, although at least two Uncirculated coins can be accounted for.

After 1808, quarter eagle mintage was suspended. It was not until many years later, in 1821, that the denomination was again struck, at which time a modified design was used.