Our Mint, it is said, has lately coined four hundred thousand quarter dollars, which will furnish a good supply of change. — Weekly Raleigh Register, Raleigh, North Carolina, June 26, 1818As lustrous and as beautiful as any coin of this vintage could hope to be, this coin shows magnificent cartwheel on both sides. The toning contrasts sedate and even pale sea green and gold on the obverse with more decorative target toning on the reverse, which shows rings of gold and pale blue-green embracing a rosy center. Some will find the obverse more beautiful in its frosty elegance, others will prefer the ebullient reverse with its bright coloration. The strike is definitive on both sides. The crescent of a halting first attempt at planchet cutting is visible just inside the rim from 1:00 to 7:00 on the obverse and takes on the character of a wire rim at the right side of the reverse. A magnified examination reveals few trivial hairlines and even fewer trivial handling marks. Very early die state for this marriage, with no evidence of a die clash on the obverse but a bold reverse die clash in the same state as that found on Browning-2. The reverse crack through the lowest arrowhead is present, though it does not reach the shield. The obverse is uncracked, with no trace of the crack that develops between the rim and star 7; nor is there a crack at U of UNITED on the reverse. There is no significant evidence of the 5 underdigit that once resided under the final 8 on this die, and some buildup of metal in the die at that digit suggests the vestiges have been lapped away. This may be an undescribed middle die state, lapped after the obverse clash but falling into the sequence before the reverse lapping that took away much of the detail in the eagles head.With just one issue of quarter dollars struck at the United State Mint since 1807 — those of 1815 — and diminishing mintages from Latin America amidst significant political upheaval, the nations citizenry was hungry for small change. Breen has related that most of the 1815 quarters were shipped to the Planters Bank in New Orleans, leaving the Eastern Seaboard in desperate need of small change. The deficiency was significant enough that news of a new emission of quarter dollars made the papers and was met with excitement. Once these quarters were delivered to outposts far from major ports or the Mint at Philadelphia, places like Raleigh, North Carolina, they were immediately spent and began a long journey in commerce.The 1975 offering of the James A. Stack Collection, which once included this specimen, was the first of many specialized collections Stack would sell through Stacks, though there was no familial relation. The preface to the 1975 catalog recalls when Mr. Stack began his collecting activities almost forty years ago ... he took full advantage of opportunities presented by the dispersal of such outstanding collections as those formed by Neil, Atwater, Dunham, Hall, and Colonel Green, to name only a few. As a result all the great rarities are here, in addition to many of the finest knowns. This approach is reminiscent of that used to form the D. Brent Pogue Collection, participating in the sales of the great cabinets to acquire outstanding high grade rarities that are offered only when such collections fall under the hammer. This coin has resold publicly just once since 1975. Since that time, the opportunities to acquire a specimen of this quality have been precious and few.
