1802/1 Quarter Eagle

HBCC#:

3008

Breen#:

6118

BD#:

2

Judd#:

n/a

Pollock#:

n/a

Three known die varieties of 1802 quarter eagles are all from the same obverse die with three different reverse dies. This variety, described simply as Breen-2, is clearly the rarest of 1802 with approximately 20 to 30 examples known. The recorded mintage, for all 1802 varieties combined, was 3,035 coins, including 423 examples struck in 1803. In the early days of our Mint, a principal concern was stretching the budget as far as possible. If dies were still serviceable, there was nothing wrong in using them after the date they carried, although it was illegal to use dies before their date.

Provenance:

From Pine Tree Rare Coin Auctions' sale of September 1973, Lot 411.

Obverse:

Reverse:

Commentary:

"Obverse: Date repunched. Reverse: Leaf free of I."