Quarter Eagle -> 1846-C

Vitae

  • Quarter Eagles 1838 - 1860
  • Liberty Head 1840 - 1860
  • Diameter: 18.2 millimeters
  • Fineness: .900
  • Weight: 64.5 grains
  • Designer: Christian Gobrecht
  • Edge: Reeded
  • Coiner: John R. Bolton

After being shut down for a year and a half by a devastating fire, production was slow to resume at the Charlotte Mint in 1846. As a result, only 4,808 quarter eagles were produced. As one might imagine, the 1846-C quarter eagle is a very scarce coin in any grade. The typical survivor grades Very Fine and accurately graded Extremely Fine pieces are about as nice as most collectors can hope to own. There are just six to eight pieces currently accounted for in About Uncirculated as well as another four or five in Mint State. Many 1846-C quarter eagles show a good strike but it is hard to find pieces which do not show mint-made granularity on the surfaces.

Condition Census

  1. Nevada collection, ex Elrod collection, Bowers and Ruddy Eliasberg collection (10/82): 137, John Clapp collection, David Wilson collection (Samuel Chapman, 3/1907): 200. Graded MS-63 by PCGS. The plate coin in the first edition of this book.
  2. Paul Dingler collection (3/94), ex Winthrop Carner, Texas dealer. Graded MS-63 by PCGS. The coin pictured here and the plate coin in Doug Winters' second edition of his book.
  3. Private collection, ex Steve Ivy's Henry Herrman collection (7/79), ex Stack's "H. R. Lee" (10/47): 1100, Louis Eliasberg. Mint State-63 or thereabouts. Unseen by the author.
  4. (tie) North Georgia collection, ex Stack's 12/94: 1385, R. T. Wilder collection. Later graded MS-62 by NGC (and) Private collection, ex Jesse Lipka inventory, first seen 9/97, possibly ex Bowers and Merena 1/97: 292. Also graded MS-62 by NGC.
  5. Private collection, 1990, ex Al Adams, Jeff Notrica. Graded MS-61 by PCGS.