The 1859 is the first Proof Liberty quarter eagle for which the mintage was recorded by Mint personnel. It is also the highest mintage Proof quarter eagle produced up until that time (more on the relevance of this mintage figure below). Both these facts are the result of Mint Director James Ross Snowden's decision to begin marketing Proof sets to the general public on a large scale, a plan put into practice beginning in 1858. The late 1850s saw the first major boom in coin collecting in the United States, and Snowden's efforts were undoubtedly intended to capitalize on that upswing in the hobby. In anticipation of records sales for the era, the Mint struck 80 Proofs of each of the gold denominations current in 1859, from the gold dollar through the double eagle. Such expectations proved wildly optimistic, however, and numismatic scholars agree that only a small percentage of these coins were actually distributed to contemporary collectors. The balance of the mintages were either destroyed through melting or (more likely) released into circulation.

The net distribution of the Proof 1859 quarter eagle will probably never be known, but through research into the historic numismatic auction record and other sources, we are able to establish the total number of coins known today with reasonable accuracy. Interestingly, the survivors include examples of both known reverse hub types that the Philadelphia Mint used to strike circulation strike quarter eagles in 1859. The Type I Reverse (a.k.a. Old Reverse) is identifiable by large arrowheads that are close to the letters ICA in AMERICA, with the top two arrowheads touching. Conversely, the Type II Reverse (a.k.a. New Reverse) displays small, fully separated arrowheads that are distant from the letters ICA. The Type II Reverse is attributed to Chief Engraver James Barton Longacre, and by 1862 it had completely replaced the Type I Reverse for Philadelphia Mint quarter eagles. (The San Francisco Mint would continue to use the Type I Reverse until 1876.)

Per our research, there are no more than 11 Proof 1859 quarter eagles of both reverse hub types extant. Three are impounded in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, American Numismatic Society and the Royal Mint in London and, thus, are not available for private ownership. Of the 11 known specimens, only three are the Type II Reverse, including the ANS specimen. The provenances of the two Type II Reverse specimens in private hands are below.

Roster of Known Specimens of 1859 New Reverse Proof Liberty Head Quarter Eagles

1 | PCGS PR-65 Deep Cameo | The Amon G. Carter, Jr. Specimen

• January 1984, Our (Stack's) sale of the Amon G. Carter, Jr. Family Collection, Lot 553
• August 2015 Stack's Bowers Galleries ANA Auction, Lot 10210

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2 | NGC PR-65 Cameo | The Reed Specimen

• October 1996, Christie's and Spink America's sale of the Byron Reed Collection, Lot 55
• June 2015, Heritage's Long Beach Expo US Coins Signature Auction, Lot 4202
Until recently, this coin was believed to be unique for a Proof 1859 quarter eagle of the Type II Reverse.

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As specialists in 19th century gold are fully aware, the Type II Reverse is the more readily obtainable hub type of the circulation strike 1859 quarter eagle. For the year's Proof delivery, however, the opposite is true with seven of the 11 known survivors representing the Type I Reverse.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the August 2015 Chicago ANA Auction, where it sold for $64,625.