The single finest-known example from this die marriage.A magnificently toned and frosty gem, displaying a peacocks colors of bright amber and gold, with hints of magenta and emerald green, around an opalescent gray center. Boldly lustrous, with especially satiny fields on the reverse and strong cartwheel on the obverse. The strike is a bit soft in areas, including the curl over the ear, the cap, and the feathers left of the shield, but many other details like the obverse star centers are sharp as a tack. While the crack from the drapery clasp to shoulder curl is not apparent, the tops of N in UNITED and M in AMERICA are broken and filled and spalling is visible in the field right of the eagles neck.An aesthetic delight, this coin is ranked among the very finest examples of this coinage year and is alone atop the Rea-Koenings-Haroutinian census at MS-66. This coin was graded MS-66 by PCGS before its 1990 auction appearance, remarkable considering the evolution of grading standards since that time. In its 1992 auction appearance, it was described as tied for finest known among all 1835 quarters, a laurel it continues to wear today in the Population Report. We suspect the three recorded submissions that have resulted in the MS-66 grade assignment at PCGS are this coin and the Eric P. Newman 1835 B-2, previously offered as NGC MS-67*, with one of them receiving this grade twice. There are no previous auction records of an MS-66 from either service among all eight die marriages of 1835.
