The Early Quarter Dollars of the United States

  Quarter Dollars of 1822

Total number of pieces coined 64,080. Two varieties are known.

The coinage of this year appears to have been made with one obverse and two reverse dies. Three other obverses evidently were prepared, which subsequently became overdates, and which vary from the regular obverse of the year. See 1823, 1824, and [Browning] 1 of 1825.

No. 1

Obverse: Date not equally spaced; upper left star points to spot where end of upper curl meets Liberty band.

Reverse: Ends of scroll: left even with extreme left of D; right about even with extreme right of A. On scroll: I under T at left; S centered under S.

Dies perfect. A scarce variety, rare if sharp. Proofs were made from these dies.

Normal 25 C.
Browning-1; Clapp-1; Duphorne-44; Breen-3904; Haseltine-1.
Rarity-3, high.

No die failures. The "break" from fourth through seventh stars, claimed in J.H. South:456 (AU), was a planchet defect.

Proofs: At least six were known to Wayte Raymond before 1951, of which the following probably include the majority:
1. John H. Clapp, Eliasberg Estate.
2. Cleneay:1323, Newcomb I:596.
3. Allenburger:786.
4. Kern:1406, Lohr:529. Cleaned.
5. S.W. Freeman:1650. Possibly same as one of foregoing.

Business strikes are rare in Mint State but not as rare as those of any 1821 variety. Among the best ones may be named:

1. Boyd, WGC:80.
2. "Dupont":1796.
3. Pelletreau:674. Gem.
4. Wolfson:784.
5. Eugene Gardner: 1626 (prooflike, streaked).
6. "Winter":1328 (S 1/74), Crouch:849.
7. J.A. Stack:20. Cleaned, retoned.
8. Auction '80:650.
9. Norweb:1536 (prooflike).

Browning got his from W.P. Brown in 1913 as "Uncirculated" at $2.

Numerical Condition Census (RWM, Sr. [circa 1992]): 63, 63, 62+, 62, 62, 62.

No. 2

Obverse: The same as [Browning] 1.

Reverse: 25 over 50 in value, 25 C., the engraver evidently mistook the die for that of a 50-cent piece, then corrected the error; 2 has a curved base; left end of scroll is under E.

25 over 50.
Browning-2; Clapp-2; Duphorne-45; Breen-3095; not in Haseltine.
Rarity-5, High.
The correction was twice repunched, crudely, producing so unsightly a result that the die was laid aside in horror, becoming one of Scot's closet skeletons, like the half dollar obverse finally put in use in 1824 with 4 altered from 3, 2, 1 and 0.
Proofs:
1. Mougey:687, Clapp, Eliasberg Estate.
2. Davis-Graves:331. Possibly ex Virgil Brand.
3. Virgil Brand, Miles:892.
4. Virgil Brand, Steve Ivy, 1976. Ill. in Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Proof Coins, 1722-1977.
5. Virgil Brand, J.A. Stack Estate:21, $7,500.
6. J. Colvin Randall, T. Harrison Garrett, J.W. Garrett:636, $40,000. Supposedly Virgil Brand had four, dispersed by Horace Louis Philip Brand (who used to advertise "I sell to dealers only"); we have accounted for all three of these. E.P.C.
7. Norweb:1537. Dig in left obverse field.

The old claim that Carl Wurtzbach had a hoard of Uncirculated business strikes, some prooflike (referred to in Breen's "Notes on Early Quarter Dollars" from something Wayte Raymond told [Breen]), has not been verified. Possibly this alluded to the four Brand Proofs, which may have come from Wurtzbach; this many was one of Brand's buyers for many years.

The following are the best business strikes known to me:
1. "Dupont":1797, G.K. Uncirculated.
2. Cass, "Empire": 1017. VF, not illustrated.
3. Adolph Friedman, 1946 ANA:426. VF, not illustrated. Same as last?
4. S.W. Freeman:1554, VF, not illustrated, reverse scratched.
5. 1970 ANA:664, Bowers & Ruddy RCR 11-12 (1971), Bergen:51, Dr. Jerry Buss
6. Kriesberg/Cohen 9/10-12/73:666, "VF," not illustrated, reverse scratched.
7. Boyd. WGC:81, Fine-VF.
8. "Century": 849, Fine-VF, not illustrated.

Six others have been auctioned, three VG, three Good.

Numerical Condition Census (RWM, Sr. [circa 1992]): 63, 60, 55, 55, 30, 30.