Owner Comments:
CAC.
This is a very nice F12, for sure. It has an even brown patina, with lighter central devices. Tilting under light reveals gold accents on the devices and shades of blue-violet in the fields. I love the look but, unfortunately, my camera can't do it justice.
But what makes this coin really interesting is that it's an example of a very rare die pairing. It combines the new Type 2 obverse introduced in 1859 with the old Type 1 reverse that began to be phased out in 1859. The Type 2 obverse adds shield lines above the E in Liberty, and Lady Liberty gets a redesigned head, face, and hair. On the Type 1 reverse the eagle's eye is concave and the last A in America sits lower than the other letters in the legend.
Briggs noted in 1991 that this die pairing is rare. More recently, Greg Johnson (a noted Seated Quarter specialist) refers to this pairing as "a very rare variety of a very common date." 1861 saw the last Philadelphia quarters minted with the old Type 1 reverse, and the 1861 Type 2/Type 1 quarter is indeed tough to find. I felt fortunate to purchase a PCGS AG3 example a few years ago. When an F12 CAC example of this coin appeared in a recent GFRC auction, attributed as such by Gerry Fortin and his auction cataloguer, I just had to have it!