Reported mintage: 80
Estimated number of pieces known: 8-10 (10 to 12.5% of original mintage)
Characteristics: 1859 Proof Quarter Eagle usually struck from the old reverse, a single example is known with the new reverse, believed to have been introduced for Proof coinage in 1860. Obverse has date low in field, slanting very lightly down to the right. No other noticeable features, although one researcher has noted some minor repunching in the Y of LIBERTY. Eye-appeal generally is good, with strong mirrors and frosty surfaces. Some tiny lint marks are usually noted on both sides, but not more than average, and can be used for identification purposes of individual coins.

Comments: Somewhat regular production of Proof coinage started in 1858, but the gold denominations did not see substantially larger mintages until the next year. Of the quarter eagle denomination, a reported 80 pieces were struck in Proof format. However, it is evident from the low number of pieces known that only an estimated 20 to 25 were sold to collectors, with the others melted after the year had ended. Breen, in 1979 suggested that only five 1859 Proof quarter eagles were known, but in 1988 he listed seven individual examples. Akers estimated “fewer than ten examples known”, but his number appears to have been high for the number of pieces known at the time. However a few more have since then reported, but it seems unlikely that more than ten examples are known in all grades up to this day, including at least two permanently impounded in museums and another two included in complete 1859 Proof sets. This leaves an extremely small number on the market for quarter eagle or Proof gold specialists, and both auction appearances as well as fixed price-list offerings are very rare.

Most pieces that are known are of high quality, with cameo fields on both sides. As mentioned above, only a single example is known with the new reverse hub. That piece is Ex: Byron Reed and last sold at public auction in 1996. All other known examples are with the old reverse hub, which has larger letters and arrowheads than the new type. A reasonable explanation for the existence of that coin is the introduction of the new reverse die very late in the year, when the majority, if not all of the Proof quarter eagles had already been sold to collectors. Other examples from this die pair were melted, with a single example miraculously escaping the melting pot. The Harry W. Bass example, earlier graded PCGS PR-66 but apparently out of that holder now, is usually quoted as the finest known. Only a few examples have appeared on the market during the last decade, making research on provenances rather difficult, as is common among rare coins like the 1859 Proof quarter eagle. Some coins, undoubtedly, have been submitted to the major grading companies on multiple occasions, as the population reports totals to a number greater than the actual number of pieces known.