1798 $2.50 Wide Date MS(PCGS#7649)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

3219

Grade

AU58

Price

54,000

Lot Description

The kind of coin early gold connoisseurs know to look for and early gold novices may have never before encountered, a richly original specimen with lush rose and violet tones across both sides. The deep yellow gold surfaces are richly lustrous and show tantalizing remnants of reflectivity around design elements and in protected areas of both sides. The strike is well centered and full, bringing life into the reliefs and design elements on both sides. This piece's stay in circulation was both brief and peaceful, and there is little in the way of defects to report. Some of the usual light hairlines are seen, but there are no heavy marks or issues with the rims. We note a short scratch at the tip of the left wing of the eagle, a few hairlines above the arrowheads in the left reverse field, and a single short scratch above star 6 on the obverse. Collectors have taken excellent care of this, and it looks much the same today as it did the very first time someone thought they might like to hang onto this coin rather than spend it.<p>Any pre-1834 quarter eagle is a rare coin whose survival is a minor miracle. Worth more in gold than their stated value long before anyone considered collecting them, most were melted, either overseas soon after their production or as a deposit to the United States Mint in later years. Those that did survive often did so because they were in a piece of jewelry, leaving a population skewed toward the lower end of numismatic desirability. For those that survived in better states of preservation, numismatic tastes often spelled the demise of their originality. Toned and original examples like this one typically required a long stay in a collection or fortunate benign neglect to remain in this state: undipped, uncleaned, and boldly appealing.<p>It's unclear exactly when this coin was acquired by Amon Carter, Sr., but the collection began in the 1930s, after the elder Carter encountered fellow Fort Worth resident B. Max Mehl at a Rotary Club meeting. Nearly all of the United States gold coins in the Carter collection were acquired by the elder Amon before his death in 1955 and remained there until the collection was sold by Stack's in 1984. Considered one of the great old-time cabinets, the Amon Carter Collection is perhaps best known for the Specimen-66 (PCGS) 1794 dollar that was the first coin to ever sell for more than $10 million. The presence of this coin alongside that one for decades underscores this piece's connoisseur quality and importance. PCGS has never graded one finer than MS-62.