Owner Comments:
The day before I ordered this San Francisco coin, I had ordered my final Carson City coin — an 1876-CC double eagle — and perhaps excited about what I had ordered, I went back online to the Florida dealer's website to view it again. It was during that viewing that I happened to spy this 1857-S quarter eagle, and so I called them back up and put in the order for it, too.
The date was October 2, 2014.
Between October 1, 2014 and December 12, 2014, the final nine coins of my 14 coin 1834 - 1933 US Gold Type Set collection were shipping to me and not one of them was ever returned. They were all "keepers.”
At the time of this coin’s acquisition, little did I know how much I would very, very, much, greatly appreciate it in later years.
For one, it was minted at the original San Francisco mint building and it is the 2nd year of collectable quarter eagles minted by San Francisco — this being the case since the 1854-S quarter eagle's first year of minting is beyond the reach of all but the extremely wealthy (only 246 were minted) and the 1855-S quarter eagle was never minted at all; reason being that there was an ongoing shortage of "parting acids” needed for gold purification, a direct result of the California Gold Rush.
Secondly, this coin pays homage to the SS Central America steamship (Ship of Gold) which struggled so desperately in a hurricane off the coast of North Carolina in September of 1857, finally sinking in the eye of the storm, Stars and Stripes flag flown upside-down to signal the steamer’s dire distress.
The gold that sank aboard the SS Central America that fateful day was minted in San Francisco. And since it was such a vast sum, bound for New York, its loss contributed to the Panic of 1857, and the following years of financial recession.