1861 $2.50 (1861 Quarter Eagle) PCGS MS61. This Civil War dated, mint state 1861 Quarter Eagle gleams with bright mint luster. There is light abrasion on the coin as well as a couple of more notable obverse marks, below Libertys eye, at the truncation, and in the field between stars 1 and 2. The strike is sharp on both sides of the coin. The quarter eagle of 1861 used a Liberty Head obverse with a Heraldic Eagle reverse motif. Both old and new reverses were used on the Philadelphia strikes.

The new reverses, such as the present coin, had smaller letters and arrowheads. The mintage numbers were 1,283,788 regular circulation strikes with 90 proof coins. These numbers include both types. Much of the gold for the regular coinage came from Type I gold dollars that had been stored in the New York Sub- treasury and were melted for bullion after they were replaced by the new Indian Princess motif dollars. There are many die pairs for the 1861 quarter eagle because 21 obverse and 24 reverse dies were used to create the coinage.