1854-S $2 1/2 VF35 PCGS Secure. Ex: Davis-Graves, Norweb. The present offering of a VF35 PCGS 1854-S quarter eagle ranks among the most memorable lots in this sale; in fact, the 1854-S quarter eagle is among the mostmemorable U.S. coin issues of all time, regardless of the particular venue. Only 246 examples were produced in the first year of operations at the San Francisco Mint, and it appears that all of them quietly slipped intocirculation. Legendary Fort Worth, Texas, coin dealer B. Max Mehl discovered the first reported specimen in 1910 through his "extensive advertising," a piece he apparently sold privately to prominent Wisconsincollector H.O. Granberg.

In addition to Granberg, the list of former owners of 1854-S quarter eagles today is a Who's Who of American numismatic luminaries of several generations: Atwater, Clapp, Wolfson, Boyd, Norweb, Eliasberg, Bass. Theacquisition of this Choice VF specimen will confer instant numismatic immortality on its possessor.

Interestingly, Mint Marks author Augustus Heaton was apparently quite confused on the rarity of some of the early mintmarked gold issues. He seems to have been aware of the production of the 1854-S quarter eagle and halfeagle (mintage 268 coins, of which but three are known today), but he calls only the five dollar issue "exceedingly rare." His pamphlet, published in 1893, says of S-mint quarter eagles:

Today we know that San Francisco made no quarter eagles in 1858 -- and we wonder what mintage figure he was using for the 1854-S.

As our detailed roster below indicates, somewhere between a dozen and a dozen and a half examples -- no more -- can be traced today. No Uncirculated examples of the 1854-S quarter eagle are known, and any survivor is sureto cause fervent bidding among the many specialists in Western gold.

The San Francisco Mint opened on April 3, 1854, in a renovated building formerly occupied by Moffat and Co., striking its first gold coin, an 1854-S proof double eagle now in the National Numismatic Collection of theSmithsonian. It is a mystery why San Francisco struck so few quarter eagles and half eagles during the year, as it produced a modicum of Type One gold dollars and a great quantity of double eagles and eagles -- in fact, thenew branch mint struck every authorized gold denomination during the year except the three dollar gold. In the case of the quarter eagles, while the circumstances surrounding the low mintage are lost today, it continues atrend that persisted throughout the denomination's history at the Mint, to treat it as the "red-headed stepchild" of U.S. gold coinage. (The half eagle is even more curious, as the five dollar gold was aworkhorse denomination with plentiful mintages for most of Mint history; whatever the circumstances were, they clearly were unique to the time, place, and economic situation; perhaps bullion depositors simply preferred thelarger eagle and double eagle at the time when available parting acids made gold coinage feasible.)

In the appearance of this coin in the Norweb Collection, the cataloger noted:

To read the complete lot description, see: 854-S $2 1/2 VF35 PCGS Secure....(https://coins.ha.com/itm/liberty-quarter-eagles/1854-s-2-1-2-vf35-pcgs-secure/a/1274-4314.s?ctrack=200071)