1802/'1' $2.50 MS(PCGS#7650)

1802/'1' $2.50 MS (PCGS#7650)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Lot Description: BD Die State b/c. This above average example of the type, date and die pairing will please even advanced gold enthusiasts. Frosty surfaces retain traces of the original mint finish, and there is modest semi-reflectivity in the fields. The strike is ideally centered, the borders denticulated in most areas, although the lower obverse and upper reverse are softly impressed. The design elements are bold apart from softness in the centers that is more pronounced on the reverse. Vivid medium golden-yellow color provides pleasing eye appeal.<p>Among dates of this type, the 1802 is not elusive in lower circulated grades. Many collectors choose an 1802 or 1807 to represent the design type, and with perhaps 200 specimens of the 1802 surviving in all grades, there are generally enough for collectors to at least locate one. Close to Mint State, however, this scenario changes. This NGC-certified Choice AU is a significant find in today's market.<p>The Mint used only a single obverse die for this issue, and for many years numismatists believed that the digit 2 in the date was punched over a 1, a feature seen on its big brother the half eagle of this year, which often shows the overdate feature rather sharply. However, more recent scholarship has discounted the presence of an underlying 1 on the sole 1802-dated quarter eagle die.