Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins 1722-1989

*Quarter Eagle. Only one variety. First published in Adams's Official Premium List (1909), which mentioned nos. 1 and 2 below; earlier, the date was represented in collections by C or D mint coins, often unspecified, as nobody prior to A. G. Heaton particularly cared which mint had produced the coins of any given date. Fine edge reeding, like other Philadelphia coins of the period; entirely unlike the wider coarser reeding found on C and D mint coins. I mention this because forgeries have been made by removal of a C or D mintmark; I have seen at least two. Leo A. Young was offered one of these in thelate 1950's or early 60's, and a doubt of the same type was thrown on the former Earl Parker coin offered as Hydeman:548 (1961).

(1) SI ex Mint proof set.

(2) Connecticut State Library, Hartford, ex J. C. Mitchelson. Impaired.

(3) Newcomer 713 (cost $1200), source unknown, to Col. Green, RG. Johnson, C. M. Williams, J. F. Bell, "Memorable":101, C. T. Weihman, Cardinal Spellman estate, Archdiocese of N.Y.

(4) Adolphe Menjou:1189, R. F. Schermerhorn, R. Friedberg, H. P. Graves, Davis-Graves: 691, Grant Pierce, 1976 ANA:2787, $41,000. Field rubbed.

(5) Col. Green (from a broken set), B. G. Johnson, F. C. C. Boyd (cost a reported $3,600), WGC:108 at $6,000, Eliasberg.

(6) Wolfson: 114, $15,000; Alex Shuford: 1731, $18,000, World-Wide, Herstal:739A, $26,000, imparied.

(7) Dunham: 1932, dealer intermediaries, J. F. Bell, Bell II: 108, $13,500 (1963). VF, former proof.

(8) Upper N.Y. state noncollector accumulation, 1958, authenticated by me; to Q. David Bowers, resold at $14,250. VF+. Pictured, Empire Review 14:31 (August 1961).

(9) Merkin 2/72:368A, $11,000; H Terrell":1009, $10,050. VF+. Not same as foregoing, though very similar and formerly believed to be the same coin.

(10) Mehl 3/26/1940 mail bid sale, $605, "Fine." Not since traced, doubted - is this the Earl Parker coin?

(11) Stephen Baer, Los Angeles, VF+, two plain rim nicks at upper obv.; earlier history if any unknown (1974).

(12?) Unidentified - the piece stolen from RARCOA at the 1966 N.Y. Metropolitan convention, possibly no. 7 or 8.

In all, possibly 4 or 5 still qualify as proofs, remainder got into circulation; oddly, more than half were fairly recent discoveries. Col. Green supposedly owned three - nos. 3, 5 and possibly either 4 or 6. In 1945, the cataloguer of WGC knew only three - nos. 1, 2 and 5. In 1948, he knew of only five- nos. 1, 2, 5, 7 and 10, proving that he had not had access to the Col. Green inventory.

The above accounts for nine demonstrably different specimens, with a couple more which may or may not duplicate those. William Ulrich claimed to have owned one, which he offered to Leo A. Young in the early 1960's; I did not see the coin, but if it is genuine, it is probably a reappearance of no. 6, 7, 8, or 11. We may conjecture that either 10 or 12 were originally struck. However, the evidence of other gold proofs of this year leads at once to the conclusion that most of these quarter eagles were not for sets; more quarter eagles survive than proofs of all the other silver or gold denominations!

Half Eagle. Centered date, die file marks at border between last two stars. SI, ex Mint collection, from the complete set. One was in the Col. Green set, presumably the piece known to Wayte Raymond.

Eagle. Centered date, rev. of 1840. (1) SI, ex Mint coll. (2) A somewhat questionable proof is in ANS, from J. P. Morgan, presumably ex R. C. W. Brock. This is from polished dies and is very sharp but the surface is not of the quality of the later proofs.

Complete sets. SI, ex Mint collection, the coins enumerated above. Col. Green's set was broken up and may have lacked a denomination or two.

1942

*Half Cent. Small date. Second star double punched. Large berry reverse as in 1840-41. At least one has the same unusual flaming brilliance as was commonly seen in 1841. About a dozen known, two being in museums (Smithsonian; ANS); of the other ten, at least two are worn or damaged. The better of these two was from Parmelee, the other is nicked, dented, scratched and banged up aside from its indications of wear, and sold via 1956 NY Met: 1317 in the "Century" sale of 1965 for a reported $600! One of the proofs is in a set formerly owned by Oscar G. Schilke (co-author of America's Foreign Coins), one was NN 51: 1216, one was "Dupont": 1133, a fourth was Holmes: 1336, a fifth was Cass - "Empire": 107 (this is the flaming red coin on the 1.840-41 blank), and Brobston's was offered at $700 over a dozen years ago. No restrikes with the large berry reverse.