1822 25C 25/50C PR65 Certification #-24939, PCGS #5367

PCGS grade. Ex. Randall. Sold by Bowers & Ruddy Mar '80. Price realized $60,000. Pedigreed 12/30/14.

P. Scott Rubin

The 1822 25 over 50 C. Proof Quarter is a very rare coin, there is a question of how many true Proof coins of this issue exist. In the April, 2014 Heritage Central States Sale which included the highly respected dealer David Akers’ specimen sold for the record price of $229,125, the catalog description stated that only three examples are known struck as Proofs. The three listed include the PCGS Graded Proof-65 Akers coin, Ex. Virgil Brand, James A. Stack, 1992 Bowers & Merena Somerset Sale. The Garrett Coin, Ex. John Colvin Randall, T. Harrison Garrett, Johns Hopkins University coin last sold by Bowers and Ruddy in Part II of the Garrett Collection in March of 1980. The third coin mentioned in the 2014 Heritage sale was a coin from the original Mint Collection and now part of the Smithsonian Institution collection.

The above list does not explain the 1984 Heritage December Sale coin which was believed to be Ex. Steve Ivy in 1976, nor the Bowers and Merena Norweb coin sold in part II of that collection in 1988, this coin shows damage to both the Obverse and Reverse fields. Also left off the list is a coin sold by Stack’s in 1954 as part I of the Davis-Graves Sale which was described as a Proof having high wire rims.

Some coins of this issue that have been sold as proofs, according to Heritage are now believed to be Prooflike business strikes. In this group is the 1910 Elder’s Mougey Sale coin that went to Clapp to Louis Eliasberg and the Ex. Stack’s 1969 Miles Sale coin which most recently was sold by Stack’s in their October, 1990 Sale.

I am aware of only two examples crossing the auction block in the 19th century. Both coins came from collectors with histories of connections to mint employees. In June of 1885 W. Elliot Woodward sold the first of two sales that year of James Colvin Randall’s collection, lot 570 contained a Proof 1822 25 over 50 C. Quarter which sold for $16 to T. Harrison Garrett. Five years later, in June of 1890 New York Coin Company Sold the collection of Robert Coulton Davis as lot 1421 of his collection. Both of these individuals as mentioned were believed to have had personal connections with employees of the Mint.