In their recent October 2011 Pittsburgh auction, Heritage Auctions sold a comprehensive collection of Liberty Head quarter eagles. This collection contained many of the rarities in this series and I’d like to take this time to analyze the coins themselves and the results that they garnered. One of the rarest collectible Liberty Head quarter eagles is the 1841.

As I was reviewing my notes on Dahlonega half eagles this morning, I was struck by something very interesting as I updated Condition Census information: many dates haven’t had a significant example sold in three, five or even eight years. This, in turn, made me ask out loud where the (naughty word) are all the high grade Dahlonega half eagles? Hence, the topic of this blog.

For many 19th century gold issues, it is as important to know the grade distribution as it is the overall rate of survival. In this blog, let’s look at grade distribution; namely how the surviving examples of a specific issue are distributed along the lines of grade. It is natural to believe that for the typical mid-19th century issue grade distribution, if plotted on a graph, would resemble a bell curve.

Unless you check my site regularly, there are probably some interesting pieces that fall though the cracks. They might be very rare and very desirable, but they often sell so quickly that if you don’t check the website every day, chances are good that you will miss them.

As recently as five years ago, most of the rare date gold coins that I sold were from the Southern branch mints; pieces from Charlotte, Dahlonega and New Orleans. But today, these coins make up a smaller percentage of my inventory and my sales. I now find myself making a market in coins that I formerly considered very difficult–if not impossible–to sell.

One of the truly great features on the DWN website (www.raregoldcoins.com) is the Coinapedia. Many collectors now use this site as a reference–some even daily–but others aren’t familiar with it. The reason that I started the Coinapedia project last year was simple: I don’t think there is enough high quality non-commercial information available for the collector of United States gold coins.