Splendid
1802/1 $2.50 GOLD PCGS AU50 Click on Coin Image to
enlarge
Splendid
1802/1 $2.50 PCGS AU50 - $18,950.
1802/1 Overdate
$2.50 PCGS AU50. This hugely popular early US gold
quarter eagle overdate displays lovely original fields
with really excellent eye-appeal in addition to just
being a really great early gold coin to own, some
put both sets of earlies together, one consisting
of all 1790’s dated coins and another with all
early 1800 dated coins and it would be a perfect coin
for a hand selected early US gold type set.
Neat adjustment marks, as
made by the Mint during the time of striking are noted
near the left obverse rim, but are not distracting
and give valuable insight into the practices at the
Mint in the early 19th century. The spiked shield
is easily visible, making this coin easily identifiable
when it comes to the variety. A great, original example
of this seldom offered early American gold coin, a
rare survivor showing a total of only 8 coins graded
as such by PCGS.
Please contact me by email
or telephone 1-941-291-2156
to reserve this great coin.
The so-called 'Spiked Shield variety',
one of those coins whose overdate status has been
disputed. While the last digit of date certainly shows
traces of an under digit, we can not say with certainty
if this is a 1 or something else, perhaps a repunched
2. More modern researchers agree with us on this,
and some, including the Bass-Dannreuther has listed
this date just as ‘1802’. NGC did the
same on their holder, where the correct variety was
not identified, but for completeness and because of
numismatic tradition we will continue to call this
an 1802/1, for now. Most of the research has focused
on the half eagle, which also has an overdated variety,
as did the half cents that were struck in 1802 (over
1800). As can be seen, this certainly was common practice
at the Mint, and certainly used in 1802 on a number
of different denominations.
The total mintage of the 1802 quarter
eagle was divided over three die marriages, all which
shared a common obverse die paired with a different
reverse die. The present variety, constituting most
examples of this date is easily identified by the
reverse, which will show a line (spike) from the upper
left shield tip to the left (viewer’s right)
of the eagle’s wing. This is basically the only
diagnostic that is needed to identify this variety,
and can be seen easily, even without magnification.
This die was used for two different dime varieties
as well, as it was common practice at the early Philadelphia
Mint to use some dies for both the dimes as well as
quarter. This was done to save costs for the Mint
at the time, where money was hard needed during its
first couple of decades.
