The 1867 Quarter Eagle

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As I researched the individual coins in the Star City Collection of Liberty Head quarter eagles, I was very interested to note that there were just four coins in the collection which weren’t approved by CAC. These were the 1844, 1866, 1867, and 1870.

1867 $2.50 PCGS AU58, from the Star City Collection

None of these four dates is especially well-understood by collectors and I thought it would be interesting to discuss each of them in some detail. Let’s begin with the 1867.

There were 3,200 examples made for circulation. This is comparable to the 1868 (3,600), the 1869 (4,320), and the 1872 (3,000), but the 1867 is much scarcer. There are an estimated 55-65 business strike 1867 quarter eagles extant with most in the AU53 to AU58 range. The 1867 is almost never seen in grades lower than AU50, which strongly suggests that it didn’t see much circulation. Many are semi-prooflike and nearly every 1867 quarter eagle I’ve seen is extremely abraded with heavy marks seen in the fields. The natural color is rose-gold and orange-gold but only a small number exist which have not been processed. Surprisingly, there are a few nice examples known including four or five in Uncirculated.

1867 $2.50 PCGS MS61, from the DWN Archives

A Condition Census listing for this date is as follows:

  1. PCGS MS65: Kansas Collection via Douglas Winter Numismatics, ex Heritage 1999 FUN: 7959 ($24,150).

  2. PCGS MS64+ CAC: DL Hansen Collection, ex Heritage 4/2017: 4210 ($25,850; as PCGS MS64), Bowers and Merena 9/1994: 1342 ($11,500). This coin may also have been graded MS64 by NGC.

  3. PCGS MS63: North Carolina Collection, likely ex Bowers and Merena 8/2010: 1549 ($13,800), Horseshoe Collection, Bowers and Merena 10/1999: 553 ($8,050), Harry Bass Collection. One other coin has been graded MS63 by PCGS.

  4. PCGS MS61 CAC: Unseen by me.

As of 6/2023, PCGS had graded another eight coins in Uncirculated (two in MS60 and six in MS61) but I don’t regard any of these (with the exception of the CAC approve MS61) as truly Uncirculated coins.

It is interesting to note that CAC has approved just six business strike examples of this date in all grades. Despite this fact, the 1867 has a PCGS Price Guide value of $1,750 in EF45. If a nice PCGS/CAC EF45 1867 quarter eagle were to come available, I expect it would bring at least three times this estimated price.