1815 25C Browning 1 MS(PCGS#38942)

November 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Commissaire-priseur

Stack's Bowers

Numéro du lot

2059

Grade

AU53

Prix

2 400

Description du lot

Tompkins Die Stage 2/3, Rea et al. Die State a. Minimally worn and not heavily marked, this endearing piece retains bold to sharp definition to virtually all design elements. It also offers pretty iridescent undertones of cobalt blue and antique gold to rose-gray patina. Softly lustrous for the grade, there is evidence of light numismatic handling here, but no sizeable marks are seen.<p>Although authorized by the Act of April 2, 1792, the first quarter dollars were not produced until 1796. During the earliest years of U.S. Mint operations silver coins were produced at the specific request of bullion depositors, and the quarter dollar was not a popular denomination as evidenced by the mintage figures of the 1790s and early 1800s. The highest mintage date before 1831 is the 1818, with only 361,174 pieces struck. In 1796, the inaugural year of the quarter dollar, just 6,146 pieces filled the Mint's orders for this denomination.<p>Quarter dollar production was also sporadic throughout the earliest decades of Mint operations, with many years passing in which no examples were produced. The largest gaps in production were from 1797 through 1803 and from 1808 through 1814. Much of the 1815 mintage of 89,235 pieces filled a request for quarter dollars from the Planters Bank of New Orleans. Widely known to numismatists for their counterstamped Spanish cut fractional coins, the Planters Bank deposited nearly $15,000 in silver bullion for coinage in 1815 and requested only quarter dollars in return. The new quarter dollars depicted assistant engraver John Reich's Capped Bust portrait of Liberty that was first used on the half dollar and half eagle in 1807. A single die pair struck the entire 1815-dated issue, after which quarter dollar coinage was halted once again until 1818.<p>As a first year issue, the 1815 Capped Bust quarter is eagerly sought by both type collectors and series specialists. The issue is obtainable by early quarter standards, at least in lower circulated grades, although AU examples such as this are scarce.