Indian Quarter Eagle Set, NGC MS61. 1908-1929 Indian Head Quarter Eagle Set. Here is an opportunity to obtain a complete matched set of Indian Head Quarter Eagles. All fifteen coins have been certified by NGC, and all but four are in the new type holders that allow the viewer to see the coins edge. What is unusual is that the coins in the set are all in matching mint condition, including the 1911-D, the key date. Minted from 1908 to 1915 and then from 1925 to 1929, the Indian Head quarter eagle has always been a popular circulating gold coin. In addition to being used in commerce, many were given as birthday and Christmas gifts.

Circulated coins are often seen with rubbed spots on the high points. Since they were also used extensively for jewelry, one should be aware of traces of solder or evidence of its removal. Imperfect reeding might indicate this problem, and doubtful coins should be authenticated. Authentication is also recommended for the 1911-D because a number of counterfeits have been seen. Sometimes a 1911 Philadelphia minted coin will have a D mintmark added. In uncirculated grades, the 1911-D is more than ten times more costly than the plain issue.

Designed by Bela Lyon Pratt, the Indian Head Quarter Eagles obverse shows a realistic Native American braves portrait being used as emblematic of Liberty. From a modern perspective, it is somewhat ironic that a Native American motif was chosen considering the poor treatment they received at the hands of the white man. Unlike previous Indian heads that had Caucasian females wearing fanciful headdresses, the actual subject of Pratts portrait is unknown, but the use of his image can be seen as an extension of a trend towards realism that began with the portrait of Running Antelope on the five dollar silver certificate of 1899. Above the portrait is the word LIBERTY and below is the date. Six stars are on the left and seven are on the right. For the reverse, Pratt borrowed from his mentors eagle coin and chose the standing eagle motif. The magnificent eagle stands on a bundle of arrows that look like fasces, the Roman symbol of the power to kill, and the olive branch, symbolizing peace. All four inscriptions are on the reverse without it seeming too crowded. E PLURIBUS UNUM is in the left field and IN GOD WE TRUST is in the right. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, separated by dots, arcs above the eagle, and the denomination written as 2 DOLLARS is below. Because it the highest point on the reverse, the mintmark shows wear before any other part of the coin.

Pratt was a student of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. At his suggestion, Pratt went to study sculpture in Paris at the Ecole des Beau Arts. When he returned to the United States he became an instructor at the Boston Museum School and an eminent artist of the times. Many of his works were sculptures, busts, and medals including a medal for the President of Harvard University, a bicentennial medal for Yale University, and a figure for the Sears Monument in Cambridge. He had an exhibit of seventeen pieces that won a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in California in 1915.

In addition to using a realistic motif for the obverse, Pratts other innovation for the Indian Head quarter eagle was its incuse design. What was previously the background now became the foreground. The design was shown in relief and sunken into the field. The new design was not popular with commercial interests and the banking community. People felt that the new coins could be easily counterfeited, wouldnt stack easily, and were unsanitary because dirt would remain in the incused features. However, as a whole, the public was indifferent to the new coins, and they remained in production and circulation until 1929, when the Great Depression caused economic upheaval.

The Indian Head quarter eagle is the most affordable and easily obtainable gold series to collect. It comprises of fifteen date and mintmark combinations. The 1911-D, the key to the series, has the lowest original mintage of 55,680. The 1913 coin had the highest mintage of 722,000.