Of the precious metals, the number of pieces coined in the last year far exceeds that in any former year since the establishment of the mint. — U.S. Mint Director Robert Patterson, 1805This is one of the finest known examples of this die variety, exhibiting thick toning of deep steel blue, autumnal gold, and violet. Thoroughly lustrous, the appearance of this piece is distinctive and attractive, though those two concepts do not always intersect in numismatics. The strike is excellent, with just slight softness at the eagles tail and the E of LIBERTY opposite it, as well as the top of the star cluster, which parallels the high point of Libertys shoulder. Only trivial marks are seen other than a contact point and a short scratch in the same area beneath ST of STATES. A die crack crosses the lower two points of star 4 on its way to Libertys hair; it disappears into Libertys shoulder before emerging below her bust, bisecting the 5 of the date and intersecting the rim. A more subtle crack connects the base of 1 to stars 1 and 2, and a similarly fine crack connects the tops of STAT. A single die clash is seen, most notable on the reverse. A very attractive piece whose satiny luster makes it stand out at this grade level.The first two emissions of quarter dollars at the United States Mint were paltry, numbering fewer than 7,000 pieces each year in 1796 and 1804. None had been struck at any year in between, as the Mint tried to keep up with the demand for silver dollars, the denomination preferred by most large scale depositors of precious metal. In this era, bullion depositors were permitted to request any denomination they wished, and nearly everyone took their payment in silver dollars and gold coins. Many depositors made a significant profit by exporting these to the West Indies and elsewhere, where they could be exchanged on a one-to-one basis with Spanish colonial coins. The coins of the Spanish realms were struck to a heavier standard, allowing a profit to be made by this arbitrage, whereby those Spanish colonial coins were taken to the Philadelphia Mint, deposited by weight, and turned into yet more American coins that could then be exported again. This market inefficiency for gold coins was not cured until the Mint Act of 1834, though the tide of silver exports was somewhat slowed by the ending of dollar production in 1804. The Mint after 1804 had available capacity for silver coins, which was shifted to half dollars, quarters, dimes, and half dimes. More than 120,000 quarters were struck in 1805, paid out by the Mint whenever desired by the depositors, or not particularly objected to, according to Mint Director Robert Pattersons April 2, 1807, letter to President Jefferson, written on the 15th anniversary of the original legislation authorizing the U.S. Mint.Though the mintage for quarters ballooned in 1805, they were given to banks and commercial entities that immediately put them into circulation. With the import/export cycle no longer as easy or as profitable, most were spent and remained on the American mainland. There is no evidence even a single one was saved as something special, nor is there any record of any numismatist in America systemically saving current issues of the time. All novelty had worn off. Because of this, Mint State examples are rare today, with fewer high grade survivors from this mintage than the 1796 mintage that was just 5% as big. Of the five die marriages of 1805 quarters, one die marriage is confirmed to have just a single Mint State survivor, and another has none at all. Browning-3 was a bit more fortunate, with somewhere on the order of a half dozen Mint State specimens extant according to the Rea-Koenings-Haroutunian census. Among those half dozen, this one is tied with two others as finest.
