The ultra rare 1854-S Quarter Eagle - 12 known, 246 mintage
Zoins
Posts: 34,116 ✭✭✭✭✭
This is the rarest Liberty Quarter Eagle from the California Gold Rush. Not too many of these early gold rush coins around. These coins were not known for many years and were discovered by B. Max Mehl.
For collectors of the Liberty quarter eagles, the 1854-S is considered the ultimate issue. This series presents several challenges, including the 1841 "Little Princess" and other rarities, but just 12 examples of the '54-S are known from the original mintage of 246 coins in April 1854. This issue was entirely unknown in numismatic circles until discovery of the first specimen less than a century ago in 1910.
This issue is a landmark rarity in the field of United States numismatics, a classic piece with few peers. With just a dozen pieces known, it has a rarity similar to coins such as the 1804 silver dollar, the 1907 Ultra High Relief double eagle, the 1927-D double eagle, and the 1894-S Barber dime, all coins that have broken the million-dollar barrier. The record price for an 1854-S quarter eagle is just $254,000.
The roster shows that surviving specimens can be divided into three groups by condition. A single coin is clearly the finest known, followed by this piece and two others that grade XF45, and the remaining eight coins, all in lower grades.
Then census is pretty thin on CoinFacts so I’m working to assemble photos for all specimens here. This just a start and will get built out as I find more info.
- PCGS AU50 - Boyd, Bass, Pogue Specimen
- PCGS VF35, NGC VF35* - Hansen Specimen
- PCGS VF35 - Norweb Specimen
- PCGS G06 - Sears, Clapp, Eliasberg Specimen
PCGS AU50 - Boyd, Bass, Pogue Specimen
- Cert: https://www.pcgs.com/cert/32916365
- Sale: https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-LYD15/1854-s-liberty-head-quarter-eagle-au-50-pcgs
PCGS VF35, NGC VF35* - Hansen Specimen
- Cert: https://www.pcgs.com/cert/31408871
- Sale: https://coins.ha.com/itm/liberty-quarter-eagles/1854-s-2-1-2-vf35-and-9733-ngc/a/1128-1224.s
PCGS VF35 - Norweb Specimen
- Cert: https://www.pcgs.com/cert/12824565
- Sale on October 16, 2011: https://coins.ha.com/itm/liberty-quarter-eagles/quarter-eagles/1854-s-2-1-2-vf35-pcgs-pcgs-7773-/a/1160-4692.s?
- Sale on April 29, 2018 https://coins.ha.com/itm/liberty-quarter-eagles/quarter-eagles/1854-s-2-1-2-vf35-pcgs-secure-pcgs-7773-/a/1274-4314.s?
PCGS G06 - Sears, Clapp, Eliasberg Specimen
- Cert: https://www.pcgs.com/cert/21253854
- Sale: https://coins.ha.com/itm/liberty-quarter-eagles/quarter-eagles/1854-s-2-1-2-good-6-pcgs-pcgs-7773-/a/1205-30266.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515#
Comments
A noble pursuit, Zoins. Good luck in your endeavor.
Pete
What a great project @Zoins.... Good luck with getting pictures of them all.... Cheers, RickO
21011758 is a VG10 with no pics.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
Imagine a coin that rare circulating probably for decades, only to be finally retired from circulation in VG condition. You have to wonder if it was a known rarity when pulled from commerce or saved by chance. And how many more than the 12 known are still hiding out, waiting to be rediscovered?
"Bongo hurtles along the rain soaked highway of life on underinflated bald retread tires."
~Wayne
I like the look of Hansen’s coin.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
I am pretty such the example I saw in a high end dealer's cabinet at ANA a few years back was a F12. 54s is one of my top 10 dream coins - if I had only invested in Bitcoin at the beginning..........
... maybe you could have bought a digital photo of one!
With a mintage of 254, it's not surprising only 12 are known. If anything, it should be more surprising that many still survive.> @anablep said:
The survival rate is about 5% which is presumably much higher than any noticeably higher mintage date from this series or US coin from this era. I can see one or a very few more potentially existing but that's all.
The problem with the first (AU50) coin is that it'll never get a bean due to the reverse surfaces. Pass on it and wait for a better one.
(Just some cynical commentary on today's collecting habits
).
https://coins.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?Ne=46&Nf=US+Coin+Year|BTWN+1854+1854&N=51+790+231+317+1589&ic4=Refine-MintMark-102615
@DelawareDoons @tradedollarnut
Thanks for the info. It's very useful. Please be patient as I add to this. I'm looking for specimens with both close-up and slab photos and will take some time to look for them before adding them. I'm still looking for the provenance for the F12 @DelawareDoons posted a TrueView for above.
I just add the Norweb VF35 specimen and will add the Rio Rancho XF45 specimen soon.
Stack's wrote the following for the C.L. Lee XF45 specimen which has a wonderful story behind it. Unfortunately, it only has coin photos and I still want to track down slab photos.
https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-APW76/1854-s-ef-45-ngc
I will say researching these is amazing as it's a step into the past with no TrueViews for many coins!
Isn’t it great that the Eliasberg example was more than likely someone’s pocket piece never realizing the scarcity?
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
I have much more experience as a stamp collector. For stamps one of the auction houses maintains an online list for almost all US stamps with about 30 or less known. The list includes cert #'s and photos of each stamp for reference. It seems like a good project for one of the coin auction dealers.