The Curious Case of the 1865 Quarter Eagle; Or, A Collector's Dilemma

At the recent February 2023 Long Beach show, a client came up to the table and asked if I would look at a coin for him. The coin in question was a PCGS EF45 1865 quarter eagle. This seems like a fairly mundane coin if you don’t know the series, but this is actually a rare issue with an original mintage of just 1,520 business strikes and a surviving population of less than 50.

1865 $2.50 PCGS AU58

As he placed the coin in front of me, he asked a simple question: “Should I have bought this coin?” He is assembling a complete set of regular issue 1865-dated US coinage and this was a coin which he had been searching for in vain for over a decade.

I wasn’t overly fond of the coin as it had funky orange-gold color which, in my opinion, limited the eye appeal. My first reaction was to tell him “No, you should have passed.”

Then I began to think what was the last time I handled a decent 1865 quarter eagle; let alone a nice one? It seemed like a looooong time.

I went onto PCGS.com to search for recent sales. There were only seven sold at auction since 2016, but two were no grades. I hated the NGC AU50 which traded in August 2022 (the most recent offering). Nor was I a fan of the PCGS AU58 which sold in January 2021 with its very funky color. In fact, the only one which I cared for which had crossed the block in recent memory was the Heritage 2/2020: 3149 coin—graded AU58 by PCGS—which had brought $45,600. Cool piece—but way out of this collector’s budget.

(Note: I sold the finest known—an amazing PCGS MS63—back in 2002 to the Kansas Collection).

I was intrigued enough to narrow my search to coins graded EF40 or EF45 by either service. The answer was pretty compelling: since 2000, there had been just five appearances and this included an ANACS piece which was clearly a No Grade.

1865 $2.50 PCGS AU58

In just five minutes, I had changed my mind about his purchase. While I wasn’t crazy about the actual coin, it was entirely possible that if he had passed, he might have had to wait a decade or even longer to even have a shot at a nice EF/EF+. And that’s if such a coin even existed.

Which brings me the point of this blog. If you collect a very challenging series or a specific set, the chances are good that you will be forced to buy at least one coin—maybe a lot more—which you really don’t like. And you’ll probably have to pay too much for it; to add insult to injury. In the case of the 1865 quarter eagle, the collector made a difficult decision but it was 100% the right one.

I’d be curious to hear your comments. Did Mr. 1865 Quarter Eagle make the right choice? What would you have done? Have you had to make similar decisions with your specialty?

Leave your comments in the space below or email them to me at dwn@ont.com.