GTG poll: USA Classic Head quarter eagle, 1834

2021 has been a slower year for me, numismatically speaking. I’ve still managed to acquire a few pieces, and picked up this early quarter eagle and another small piece of antebellum US gold (a Type 2 dollar) this spring.

GTG (guess the grade), and post your impressions of it, if you so desire. No professional photographs here- these are my own iPhone shots.

I’ll reveal the certification grade a bit later.

(Update: answer in Post #20.)

 

For the record, I just posted a poll vote of VF25, which is how I’d have graded the coin myself if I’d seen it this way in someone else’s poll.

This was pretending I didn’t know the real answer. That “VF25” vote is just what my own natural first impression would have been. It is not necessarily the correct answer as to how the coin is actually certified.

I will mention that my grade guesses on Classic Head gold in the past have typically turned out to have been slightly on the low side. They seem to get more leeway from the TPGs than I’d expect.

 

Maybe you should vote!

 

Nice looking VF35 . . . admirable borderline XF detail with no luster. Just a little luster and it'd be an XF40.

 

Bear in mind that I was the photographer here, with all the limitations that implies, though I will say my impressions of the coin would judge it to be neither very lustrous, nor dull and flat, either. Just kind of average in that regard.

 

This would pretty much echo my own impressions of the coin if I did not already know what the slab label says. But I have found the TPGs seem to be a bit more lenient on these early issues; at least compared to my own off-the-cuff grading assessments. Classic Heads do seem to be graded a bit differently than the subsequent (post-1839) Liberty Heads.

 

I take that to mean there is residual luster in the protected areas, and I'd therefore grade the coin XF.

 

Time for the revelation. Click the little “spoiler” tab to see the answer.

Spoiler: Click here after you’ve made your guess

Cert/pop page here.

I believe this is now the most valuable single coin in my current “Eclectic Box” holdings.

I parted with a nice piece of medieval hammered gold but picked up this coin and the aforementioned Type 2 gold dollar the same day (I’ll post the latter when I have it photographed). So one medieval gold coin out, but two antebellum US gold pieces in.


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