After the extremely rare 1854-S, the 1862-S is one of the two most difficult San Francisco quarter eagles to find along with the 1863-S. There are under 100 known from the original mintage of just 8,000 and in Choice AU, the 1862-S is a genuinely rare coin.

This piece is totally fresh-to-the-market and is offered for sale for the first time ever. It is wonderfully original with deep, natural green-gold and russet colors seen on the obverse and the reverse. The strike is sharp and the surfaces are very clean with the exception of a hidden scrape on the horizontal lines in the shield on the reverse. This is among the few 1862-S quarter eagles I have seen which were not cleaned or processed.

The last PCGS AU55 to sell at auction was the very nice Heritage 5/12: 4822, pedigreed to the famous Norweb Collection, which brought $6,613. An NGC AU58 sold for $7,050 in October 2012.

Coins which combine this degree of “freshness” with the rarity of the this issue are in great demand in the current market.

NOTE:  This coin has not yet been to CAC.