The 1859-S Liberty Seated Quarter: a Condition Rarity

rhedden

The Liberty Seated quarters minted in San Francisco between the years of 1855 and 1872 are well known among specialists for their scarcity in upper circulated and mint state grades. Previous threads on this forum have discussed the 1855-S and 1858-S issues, perhaps in more detail than some of you would care to read. There may have been others, and I can add links if you point them out.

Analyst's thread about the 1858-S quarter dollars

rhedden's old thread about the 1855-S quarter dollars

This thread is about the 1859-S Liberty Seated quarter, a semi-key date that basically defines the term "condition rarity." Since PCGS opened, they have not certified a single 1859-S quarter above AU55. The PCGS population report shows only 93 examples in all grades, and they are broken down as follows:

AU55.......2
AU53.......1
AU50.......4
XF45........7
XF40........8
VF...........25
F............14
VG..........17
G............11
AG...........2
Fr............2

The usual disclaimers about crackouts and resubmissions apply, meaning that there are probably less than 93 of these coins presently sitting in PCGS holders. The NGC population report shows the following figures, which also indicate that no mint state specimens have been certified.

AU58.....2
AU55.....1
AU53.....-
AU50.....-
XF45.....3
XF40.....4
VF.........5
F...........4
VG........2
G..........1
AG/Fr....1


Larry Briggs describes only one die marriage for the date, Briggs 1-A, and he calls the 1859-S a very scarce coin in all grades. Not much has changed since Briggs published his book in 1991. Though I personally have seen a decent number of F-VF specimens appear over the years, most of these are either cleaned pieces (whether slabbed or not), or else they have black spots or scratches/marks that diminish their eye appeal. I personally have two examples, a lightly cleaned Fine-15 and the PCGS VF35 example pictured below, which I just recently acquired from Brian Greer.



Pricing the 1859-S quarter dollar is an interesting game. VF specimens tend to be offered in the $1,500 to $3,000 range, with XF specimens in the $4,000+ range, and AU specimens in the $20k+ range. This particular quarter is an example of a coin where it definitely does matter if it grades XF45 vs. XF40.

Another interesting exercise is to compare the 1859-S quarter dollar to some of the other "S" mint Seated quarter dates of the era. I would say it is harder to obtain an 1860-S in high grade, and more expensive as well. The 1859-S and 1861-S tend to be of similar scarcity in the upper circulated grades, meaning there aren't many of them. The 1858-S is a condition rarity as well, but it is clearly easier to locate in the AG-Fine grade range.

I'll conclude by linking this image of Montgomery and Clay Streets in San Francisco, allegedly snapped in 1859. Looks like the Daily Morning Call just had a fire in the building. Life out west was tough back then - for both people and coins.

(Image credit: Historic American Buildings Survey, hosted at noehill.com).

coinlieutenant

Super tough coin...

ricko

Nice coin.... and thanks for the information... Cheers, RickO

TPRC

That 35 is nice. Several years ago, a high grade 59-s came into my friend's shop raw. I had a chance to buy it raw as a choice xf for about 6k, IIRC. Being the expert grader and seasoned numismatist that I am, I considered it and passed. After a couple of weeks, the dealer sent it in where it promptly graded PCGS AU-50. Shortly thereafter, I assisted in the sale of it for much more, while simultaneously kicking myself. It wasn't the prettiest AU, but many of these pieces are unattractive. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make that mistake again, so perhaps I continue to learn and develop. The one pictured is very nice.

fastfreddie

Ron,



A superior write up and a great pickup of a nice looking example. Sweet photo of the times.

asheland

Great thread!

MFH

Which brings me to mind that back in the mid 1990's I stopped
collecting the Seated Quarter series, due to the fact so few exist
in (at the time) my grade of choice, XF 45.

This is not a series to be taken lightly. Lots of land mines sprinkled
in to make you go crazy. BTW, Ron, that's a sweet 59-S.

roadrunner

Another interesting exercise is to compare the 1859-S quarter dollar to some of the other "S" mint Seated quarter dates of the era. I would say it is harder to obtain an 1860-S in high grade, and more expensive as well. The 1859-S and 1861-S tend to be of similar scarcity in the upper circulated grades, meaning there aren't many of them. The 1858-S is a condition rarity as well, but it is clearly easier to locate in the AG-Fine grade range.



I'd agree with all that. I sort of glossed over the 59-s in my early years because G-Fine specimens were not that hard to run across. On the other hand, you couldn't find a 60-s, 64-s, 66-s, 67-s, 71-s or 72-s in hardly any grade. It didn't help that the 59-s tended to have a larger catalog value as well. In grades of VF+/XF the scarcity drastically changes. If there's an UNC 59-s out there, I'm not aware of it. Same goes for 61-s. And while there's a slabbed 60-s graded unc, it's not an unc to me. The 58-s doesn't belong in the same group as these other S mints, other than at the higher grades of XF/AU. It's still tough to find a problem free 58-S though. Most are problematic. The 58-s is not as tough as the 59-s and 60-s in XF/AU/Unc. But it's still popular.



I don't ever recall owning a 59-S as one never dropped into my lap where I felt it had upside potential. Rhedden's piece is quite sweet.

breakdown

A great thread with a lot of interesting information. Rhedden, thank you very much for starting it. Roadrunner's post made me go look at CoinFacts and I checked out the PCGS MS61 60-S, which looks like it is the Gardner coin that sold in an NGC holder at MS61 and apparently crossed since the sale. The coin stickered at 61 but there looks to be a good amount of rub based on the photo.

Great history -- makes you wonder how nice a San Francisco set one could put together from 1855-72. Maybe pick a mid grade and try to assemble a nice set of working coins.

jcping

To me, this is a "rare" coin

Manifest_Destiny

Old thread but great info! Here's my VF25.

rhedden

The 1859-S 25c is still unknown in PCGS or NGC-certified MS60 or higher as of 8/15/2023. I see a PCGS AU58 in the population report now, and a couple of NGC AU58s. One of those coins has a CAC sticker.

Cladiator

@rhedden said:
One of those coins has a CAC sticker.

>
Man, I bet that one would be a bank buster if it came to market.

rhedden

Here it is in a 2014 Heritage auction. I guess it was already NGC AU58 CAC when I posted this thread in 2016. It brought $30,550.

https://coins.ha.com/itm/seated-quarters/1859-s-25c-au58-ngc-cac-briggs-1-a-pcgs-5450-/a/1213-30380.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Cladiator

Not a bad looking coin and seems solid for the grade. I guess that's what the bean is there to say though lol.

fathom

AU 58 CAC? Bit of a stretch.

That is one tough coin.

seatedlib3991

Thanks for this information. Odd fact is that Great Collections just recently listed 2 low grade 1859-S quarters for sale. I will at very least track them.
I do have a question for the original poster. For a number of years I had a list of PCGS Seated Quarters, listed in descending order according to number of coins slabbed. The list is old and outdated now but I had it saved on my computer for years. Then one day the site would not load. Gone. I don't know how you put that together but if you ever do something like that again please post it here. James

ARCO

About 12 years back, Monarch coin in Salt Lake City had a raw 1859-S listed as "unc". It was a beautiful coin. They were asking $8,500.00. I was tempted, but I wasn't about to spend that kind of money rolling the dice on the grade. Plus their basement lighting was notorious for hiding swipe or cleaning lines on coins.

In retrospect, even if it were lightly cleaned, it would have still been one helluva of a condition scarce coin.

rhedden

Here's an updated list of Seated 25c business strikes by total number graded at PCGS.

1. MS PL coins were added into the total
2. As usual, population report figures include resubmissions and coins no longer in slabs
3. As usual, common coins that are not worth submitting may be much more common than numbers indicate
4. Beware of major varieties; coins like 1877 S/S and 1853/4 are not as rare as the numbers suggest

An interesting note is that the 1872-S has some argument to be the 2nd rarest Seated 25c, rather than 1871-CC. 1873-CC is also very close.

I wish I had been keeping track of 1873-CC images for the past 10 years like I did with 1870-CC and 1871-CC. When I started that project, there were an awful lot of 1873-CC coins in low grade with problems on the market. Oh, well.

1873-CC 25C No Arrows 3
1872-S 25C 59
1871-CC 25C 60
1873-CC 25C Arrows 64
1873 25C Closed 3 67
1870-CC 25C 80
1866 25C Motto 81
1871-S 25C 81
1872-CC 25C 92
1867-S 25C 93
1877-S/S 25C S/Horizontal S 96
1878-S 25C 96
1869 25C 100
1855-O 25C Arrows 101
1852-O 25C 103
1842 25C 104
1853 25C No Arrows 105
1866-S 25C 110
1868 25C 110
1840 25C Drapery 112
1850 25C 114
1841 25C 115
1860-S 25C 115
1849-O 25C 120
1864-S 25C 122
1886 25C 122
1873 25C Open 3 126
1851-O 25C 127
1865-S 25C 127
1842-O 25C Small Date 128
1857-S 25C 129
1867 25C 130
1859-S 25C 131
1859-O 25C 132
1851 25C 133
1849 25C 134
1855-S 25C Arrows 134
1848 25C 135
1868-S 25C 135
1871 25C 135
1852 25C 136
1873-S 25C Arrows 137
1858-S 25C 141
1844 25C 142
1869-S 25C 143
1870 25C 143
1858-O 25C 146
1846 25C 149
1872 25C 151
1861-S 25C 153
1865 25C 155
1854-O 25C Huge O 158
1883 25C 160
1856-S 25C 161
1853/4 25C Arrows and Rays 162
1847-O 25C 165
1843 25C 167
1862-S 25C 167
1882 25C 168
1850-O 25C 169
1891-O 25C 169
1844-O 25C 170
1847 25C 172
1875-S 25C 175
1840-O 25C Drapery 178
1860-O 25C 181
1884 25C 182
1887 25C 185
1842-O 25C Large Date 186
1881 25C 188
1864 25C 189
1885 25C 190
1875-CC 25C 194
1863 25C 200
1841-O 25C 201
1843-O 25C 206
1874 25C Arrows 208
1854-O 25C Arrows 212
1856-O 25C 215
1878 25C 216
1888 25C 235
1888-S 25C 242
1845 25C 243
1860 25C 252
1857-O 25C 255
1889 25C 273
1853-O 25C Arrows and Rays 296
1880 25C 305
1839 25C No Drapery 306
1890 25C 312
1859 25C 319
1855 25C Arrows 323
1874-S 25C Arrows 323
1891-S 25C 325
1879 25C 337
1840-O 25C No Drapery 344
1838 25C Seated, No Drapery 346
1862 25C 365
1873 25C Arrows 442
1875 25C 489
1856 25C 557
1876-S 25C 560
1878-CC 25C 591
1877 25C 620
1877-S 25C 652
1858 25C 791
1857 25C 852
1876-CC 25C 896
1891 25C 1,005
1876 25C 1,045
1861 25C 1,062
1877-CC 25C 1,088
1854 25C Arrows 1,188
1853 25C Arrows and Rays 2,429