This is the final year of issue for quarter eagles at this mint. There were 34,000 struck and the 1857-O is more plentiful in the lower Uncirculated grades than one might expect. It is rare in properly graded MS62 and very rare in MS63 and above.

A small group of 1857-O quarter eagles exist with excellent color and luster and this piece is among the prettiest examples of this date that I have seen. It is intensely frosty with lovely deep, natural green-gold and orange colors on the obverse and reverse. The strike is as sharp as one could hope for and a small hairline in the left obverse field is probably the only thing keeping this coin from a higher grade.

The last MS62 1857-O quarter eagle to sell at auction was an NGC coin offered as Heritage 10/11: 4702 which brought $6,038. The last PCGS MS62 to sell at auction was all the way back in May 2005 (it sold for $6,613) and only three PCGS MS62′s have sold since the beginning of 1999. An NGC MS63 brought $16,100 in the Heritage 7/12 auction and it had a large partially removed spot in the right obverse field.

This is one of the finest 1857-O quarter eagles which I have handled in the last few years.

CAC has approved three in this grade with just one finer (MS63).