1805 Quarter Dollar - 1805 25C, Browning 1, R4, PCGS F12, CAC. This scarce, nicely toned 1805 Quarter Dollar has light devices over darker fields creating an almost cameo effect. The devices are pale rose-beige and the fields are medium gray. The lower drapery lines are strong, and the hair is well outlined with some detail down the neck. Aside from some light slide marks on the obverse, the surfaces are clean and original. The CAC sticker confirms the grade and indicates that the coin is of premium quality.

Robert Scot designed the coin. The obverse was based on a drawing of Ann Bingham by the famous American portrait artist, Gilbert Stuart. It shows a left facing, draped bust of Liberty in profile. A ribbon ties the upper strands of her hair, while the rest flows down her shoulders. There are seven six-pointed stars to her left and six to her right. The word LIBERTY is above and the date is below. The heraldic eagle reverse shows the eagle with up stretched wings and a Union shield on its breast. A banner inscribed E PLURIBUS UNUM curls across the left wing and under the right. Except for the wing tips, the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is in an arc near the periphery. Thirteen stars are above the eagles head under the clouds.

The Type 2 reverse shows a heraldic eagle. However, Scot mixed up the positions of the arrows and olive branch. The arrows held in the wrong claw signify defiant militarism. Either Scot made an error copying the image of the Great Seal, or he deliberately changed the symbolism in keeping with very warlike stance. Considering that the United States at this time was engaged in a naval war with France (the undeclared Franco-American War of 1798 to 1800, which took place on the East coast of North America and the Caribbean and resulted in the end of French privateer attacks on U.S. shipping), the latter is probably more likely. The French would be especially sensitive to a message within the heraldry, and the young United States was brash in that they had just defeated the super power, England in gaining independence. In the field above the eagle are thirteen stars and above them, an arc of clouds.

Scot was born in 1744 in Edinburgh, Scotland or England. (Documentary evidence is lacking as to where he was born.)  He was trained as a watchmaker in England and learned engraving afterwards. He moved to the United States in 1777, where he worked as an engraver of plates, bills of exchange, and office scales. During the Revolution, he was an engraver of paper money. In 1780 he was made the State Engraver of Virginia. He moved to Philadelphia the next year. He was appointed Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793 by David Rittenhouse, Mint Director. Scots ability to make dies was limited, and in his advanced years he had failing eyesight. His work was somewhat less than that done in Europe at the time, and Scot was criticized for its poor quality. He was responsible for designs of most of Americas first coins.

In its population report, PCGS shows 1 1805 Quarter Dollar B-1, the present coin, in F12 condition with 1 better. CAC does not distinguish early quarters by die variety.