Quarter
Eagles - The next major design
change took place in 1808. The Capped
Bust quarter eagle was a one-year-type coin with a mintage
of 2,710. The reverse was similar to the previous issues.
No further quarter eagles were released until 1821. The
1808 issue did not circulated widely, and, consequently,
many AU pieces are available today.
Quarter
Eagles - The 1821 to 1827 issue was the Capped Head,
Large Diameter quarter eagle. The smaller head of this design
allowed the designer, John Reich, to encircle the head with
stars. Mintages for the series were low, all under 7,000
pieces. In 1826, only 760 were minted using an overdate
die. The 1824 issue was also an overdate. The Mint seemed
more interested in coins of other denominations, especially
large cents and half dollars.
Quarter
Eagles - The Capped Head, Reduced Diameter quarter eagle
was issued from 1829 to 1834. New machinery introduced allowed
the new coins to be struck in a close collar. Since the
metal of the coin was restricted, the spread of the metal
during striking was limited; the coins had uniform diameters
and uniformly thick planchets. The new collars also placed
reeding on the coins’ edges at the time of striking.
Also struck in small numbers, the highest mintage of the
series was 4,540 in 1830. Because the price of gold was
rising during the time that this series was minted, many
were melted for their bullion value. Consequently, few were
saved, and few unimpaired examples exist today.
