United States 1885 quarter dollar
This specimen was lot 511 in Scotsman's Midwest Summer Sale (St. Louis, July 2012), where it sold for $____. The catalog description noted, "1885 NGC PF-66 Apparently, when the label printers at NGC run low on ink, they must stop printing the "cameo" designation that seems to be missing from this particular slab. The reflectivity is all there, the matte frost is all there, so why isn't the designation? Perhaps a few stars are not quite frosted enough to accommodate that assessment, but otherwise, the coin looks for all the world like a cameo proof. On the other hand, the planchet seems to have had minor deficiency, most noticeable as numerous minuscule voids in the obverse left field. Modest toning on the rims surrounds off-white central details." This issue from the Philadelphia mint is from a run of low mintage dates 1879-90. For some years after the Civil War, silver bullion remained in hiding but gradually it reappeared in the United States. So many coins were returned the Treasury that orders went out to the mints to cut back production of new coin. Production of dimes resumed in 1882 but quarters and half dollars did not restart until 1891. During that period, only token amounts (mostly proofs and proof-like specimens) were produced for collectors. As these were naturally saved, they are readily available today but rather expensive.
Recorded mintage: 14,530.
Specification: 6.25 g, 0.900 fine silver, .181 troy oz AGW, 24.3 mm diameter, reeded edge, designed by Christian Gobrecht.
Catalog reference: KM A98.
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- Breen, Walter H., Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Coins, New York: Doubleday, 1987.
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- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Garcia, James, and Jay Woodside, The Midwest Summer Sale, St Louis, MO: Scotsman Auction Co., 2012.
- Yeoman, R. S., and Kenneth Bressett (ed.), A Guide Book of United States Coins, 65th Ed., Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, 2011.
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