Lot 1256
1839-C. NGC graded MS-61. Mostly untoned with reflective fields. An extremely popular issue among both Southern gold specialists and more casual numismatists, the 1839-C is the second of only two Charlotte Mint issues in the Classic Quarter Eagle series. This may be one of the more frequently encountered C-mint Quarter Eagles in today's market, as possibly the contemporary public may have set aside several examples at the time of delivery. Yet one might expect this should have happened with the first-year 1838-C. The higher mintage of the 1839-C probably means that it was the first Charlotte Mint Quarter Eagle encountered by early collectors living in the Lower Appalachian region of the United States during the late 1830s to early 1840s.
We do not mean to imply that the 1839-C is a common coin by any means; possibly no more than 200 coins are believed to have survived from an original mintage of 18,140 pieces. Furthermore, the 1839-C is rarer than the 1847-C Liberty Quarter Eagle both in an absolute sense and in terms of total number of coins believed extant in high grades. The 1839-C is a conditionally challenging issue with most survivors confined to the various VF and EF grades.
The Coinage Act of 1834 reduced the weight of the Quarter Eagle from 4.37 grams to 4.18 grams. This was done to discourage hoarding, exportation and melting, and it also required the Mint to redesign the denomination so that the general public could readily distinguish newly minted coins from their old tenor counterparts. The task of designing the new Quarter Eagle fell to William Kneass, whose rendition of Liberty was decidedly different from that used as part of the Capped Head Left design. Additionally, Kneass dropped the scroll upon which E PLURIBUS UNUM is inscribed from the upper-reverse field, the Latin motto being considered redundant with the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The new design, now known as the Classic Quarter Eagle, went to press during the second half of 1834 and remained current through 1839.
Due to the federal government's need to recoin vast quantities of old tenor gold, the Philadelphia Mint struck relatively large numbers of Classic Quarter Eagles from 1834-1836. Although yearly mintages at that facility fell off markedly beginning in 1837, they were still much more generous than those achieved for earlier types. The final-year 1839 is the rarest P-mint delivery of this design.
The year 1838 witnessed production of the first mintmarked Quarter Eagle delivery in U.S. coinage history: the 1838-C. The Charlotte Mint was joined by the Dahlonega and New Orleans facilities in 1839. The 1839-O is the most plentiful branch mint Classic Two-and-a-Half in today's market, the 1838-C, 1839-C and 1839-D being scarce-to-rare in all grades. Pop 11; 3 finer, 2 in 62, 1 in 63. (PCGS # 7699) .
Estimated Value $19,000 - 20,000.
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