Classic Head Quarter Eagles 1834-1839

For most of the early 1800s an American gold coin held more gold than its face value. Bullion dealers and exporters took the coins to Europe and melted them, so quarter eagles and half eagles hardly circulated at home. Congress fixed the problem with the Coinage Act of June 28, 1834, which took effect on August 1. The quarter eagle dropped from 67.5 grains to 64.5 grains, about 4.18 grams, and its fineness from .9167 to .8992. The old coins, now worth more than $2.50 in gold, came back to the Mint to be melted and recoined.

The Mint wanted the new coins to look different from the old. Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury suggested inscribing the date the law took effect; Mint Director Samuel Moore objected and recommended instead that the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM be dropped from the reverse, which is what happened. Chief Engraver William Kneass also gave the obverse a new portrait. His Liberty, with loose curls held by a band reading LIBERTY, is generally seen as an adaptation of the Classic Head that John Reich had designed for the cent and half cent decades earlier. The portrait was adjusted several times before 1839, partly by Christian Gobrecht, who joined the Mint after Kneass suffered a stroke in 1835.

The lighter coins stayed in circulation, and production rose sharply. Philadelphia struck 547,986 quarter eagles in 1836 alone, and the Classic Head total from 1834 to 1839 came to 968,228. A law of January 1837 set the fineness of all gold coins at exactly .900, so the coins of 1837-1839 are very slightly finer than those of 1834-1836.

The design also carried the first branch-mint quarter eagles. Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dahlonega, Georgia, had been given mints to coin the gold of the Southern gold rush, and New Orleans a third. Charlotte struck Classic Head quarter eagles in 1838 and 1839, and Dahlonega and New Orleans in 1839. In 1840 Gobrecht's Liberty Head, already in use on the eagle and half eagle, replaced the Classic Head on the quarter eagle.

Obverse. Liberty faces left, her curly hair bound by a band inscribed LIBERTY, with a ribbon end at the back of the neck. Thirteen six-pointed stars surround her, with the date below.

Reverse. An eagle with spread wings and a shield on its breast holds an olive branch and three arrows. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA runs around the top and 2 1/2 D. is at the bottom. There is no motto.

Mint mark. On the obverse, above the date: C, D or O. Philadelphia coins have none. On these coins D means Dahlonega.

Things that cause confusion.

• Capped Head of 1834. The old-tenor 1834 Capped Head quarter eagle, struck to the heavier standard, shows Liberty in a cap and keeps E PLURIBUS UNUM on the reverse.
• Liberty Head from 1840. The later design has Liberty in a coronet with her hair in a bun, and its mint marks are on the reverse under the eagle.
• Script 8 or Block 8 (1836). One 8 is plain and block-shaped; the other has a heavy middle and flowing loops.
• The 1839 dates. PCGS lists an 1839/8 overdate among the 1839-C varieties, but notes that the apparent 9 over 8 on the 1839-D comes from a badly cut digit and is not a true overdate.

• 1838-C: 7,880 struck, among the first coins of the Charlotte Mint.
• 1839-D: 13,674 struck, Dahlonega's only Classic Head quarter eagle.
• 1839-C (18,140 struck) and 1839-O (17,781), the other branch-mint issues of the final year.
• 1836: the Script 8 and the Block 8, from a year of 547,986 coins. CoinWeek also lists an 1836 with the head of 1835.
• 1834: 112,234 struck in the first year, with a small head and a larger head, nicknamed the "Booby Head," among its varieties.
• Philadelphia's later years: 1837 (45,080 struck), 1838 (47,030) and 1839 (27,021).
• Proofs: NGC lists proofs for every year from 1834 to 1839, each made in very small numbers; see the 1834 proof. NGC also lists an 1839 specimen strike.

• Composition: .8992 gold (1834-1836); 90% gold, 10% copper (1837-1839)
• Weight: 4.18 grams
• Gold content: 0.1208 troy ounce
• Diameter: 18.2 mm
• Edge: reeded
• Designer: William Kneass

Before 1837 the alloy that made up the rest of the coin could include silver as well as copper; the Coinage Act of 1837 fixed the fineness at .900.