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Bill Jones' complete gold coin type set
$2.5 Capped Head, Small Size 1829-1834

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Coin Details

Set Details

Origin/Country:	United States
Design Description:	QUARTER EAGLES - CAPPED HEAD
Item Description:	$2.5 1829 BD-1
Grade:	PCGS AU 55
Owner:	BillJones

Winning Set:	Bill Jones' complete gold coin type set
Date Added:	1/13/2008
Research:	See NGC's Census Report for this Coin

Owner's Description

Long time chief mint engraver, Robert Scott, died in 1824. His replacement was William Kneass. During his time has chief engraver Kneass never introduced a totally original coin design to any of the business strike issues. He confined his work to replacing the old designs with his variations on them.

Kneass’s interpretation of the Scott – Reich designs for U.S. gold coins featured a particularly hefty, matronly looking bust of Ms. Liberty. This chubby lady has come to acquire the nick name “fat head” or “fatty” for short. The alliteration, “fat head five,” for the half eagle of this type has a certain ring to it; but the phrase, “fat head two and a half,” is also heard for this type.

The most important innovation that Kneass introduced during his tenure was the close collar. This innovation, introduced first to the dime in 1828, added the third die or collar to the coining process. The collar imparted the reeded edge to the coin, and also gave the coins a uniform diameter and higher rims, which better protected the design from wear.

All dates of the reduced diameter quarter eagles, which were minted from 1829 to 1834, are very scarce. Not only were the mintages tiny, but the vast majority of pieces (on the order of 98%) were melted. These coins were melted either in the U.S. or abroad because their gold content exceeded their face value.

For example the mintage for the 1829 quarter eagle was only 3,403 pieces from one die pair. Today it is estimated than only 70 to 90 of these coins still exist in all grades. As such only a small number of collectors will ever be able to own an example of these rare early American coins.