1911-D Quarter Eagle - 1911-D Indian Head $2.50 NGC MS63. The 1911-D Quarter Eagle is the key date in the series and is always sought after by collectors and investors. The coin is especially attractive because of its clean, original surfaces and smoldering mint luster. Minor friction, often seen on the Indians cheek, is absent from this beauty. It is well struck with full details on the high parts of the Indians bonnet and the feather details in the headdress. The colors, light and dark yellow-orange gold, confirm the coins originality. A pronounced wire rim on the upper right obverse is a diagnostic feature of this date and mint. 

The Indian Head quarter eagle was put into production in 1908. Theodore Roosevelt, who had become president as a result of McKinleys assassination in 1901 and was in his second term of office, believed that it was time to reform all United States coinage, which in his opinion was atrociously hideous. He wanted to put into place his pet crime to improve coinage designs by bypassing the mediocre Mint Engraver, Charles Barber. Earlier Roosevelt prevailed on the world-renown sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to remake the gold eagle and double eagle coins. Now, influenced by Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow, a friend and art connoisseur, Roosevelt agreed to have Bela Lyon Pratt redesign the gold half eagle and quarter eagle. Roosevelt got the idea of making the coins incuse, like certain ancient Egyptian coins. Certainly this new design would make them different from the coinage that preceded.

The incuse design was an innovation never previously used on circulating United States coinage. It was criticized by people in banking and numismatics. They felt that the new coins could be easily counterfeited, wouldnt stack easily, and were unsanitary because dirt would remain in the incused features. However, as a whole, the public was indifferent to the new coins, and the coins remained in production and circulation until 1929, when the Great Depression caused economic upheaval.

Another innovation is Pratts use of realism in the obverse design. In 1899 a portrait of Running Antelope was used on the five dollar silver certificate. Pratt continued this trend by using a realistic portrait of an Indian brave for his emblem of liberty, as required by law. Although his name and tribe are unknown, the motif is a striking departure from the Indian head designs of the past that used stylized busts with fanciful headdresses to be emblematic of liberty. Above the portrait on the obverse is the word LIBERTY and below is the date. Six stars are on the left and seven are on the right. For the reverse, Pratt borrowed from his mentors eagle coin and chose the standing eagle motif. The magnificent eagle stands on a bundle of arrows that look like fasces, the Roman symbol of the power to kill, and the olive branch, symbolizing peace. Pratt placed all four inscriptions are on the reverse without it seeming too crowded.  E PLURIBUS UNUM is in the left field and IN GOD WE TRUST is in the right. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, separated by dots, arcs above the eagle, and the denomination written as 2 DOLLARS is below. Because it the highest point on the reverse, the mintmark shows wear before any other part of the coin.

Pratt was an accomplished sculptor and medal maker. A former student of Saint-Gaudens and the Ecole des Beau Arts in Paris, he became an instructor at the Boston Museum School. Prominent among his works were a medal for the President of Harvard University and a bicentennial medal for Yale University. In addition to medals, he also made busts and other sculptures. In 1915 he won a gold medal for an exhibit of seventeen pieces at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in California.

The 1911-D quarter eagle has the lowest mintage of the series by far. Since few were saved at the time of issue, it is the key to the series in every grade. Most survivors, even Mint State examples, show friction on the Indians cheek. The present piece surpasses the mundane by a great deal.