Early United States

Quarter Dollars

Bust quarter collectors are at the same time a special breed and the logical extension of an experienced collector at an advanced stage of the hobby. With a total mintage of just over six million coins in a time span of 43 years (1796 through 1838) and with a mintage of almost two million coins in only one of those years (1835), to refer to these coins as “rare” is an understatement at best.

Although there are type collectors looking for one example of each type in the series, and date collectors content with one example of each date, the serious aficionado strives for a complete variety collection. Since this involves under 100 known varieties, success is at once easier than it is in some series with four times as many varieties, and much more difficult due to the absolute rarity of many die marriages. The challenge and eventual success in completing a die variety collection have no equal in the hobby. If one is a super-serious collector, die states and counterstamps add further to the challenge. Best of all, in this series, knowledge is, without a doubt, king.

---Aram H. Haroutunian           

Early Quarters
General Articles
& Bibliography

CoinFacts.com  (Type History and Images)
PCGS Coin Guide

Browning, A.W. The Early Quarter Dollars of the United States, Durst reprint, 1981 (originally published in 1925 by Wayte Raymond) This book is a bit hard to follow and lacks several varieties discovered since the original was written. It is, however, well worth owning.

Reiver, Jules Variety Identification Manual for United States Quarter Dollars, 1796-1838, 1987 This clever and well written booklet is, without question, one of the most useful tools available to help identify die marriages in this series.

Browning, A.W. The Early Quarter Dollars of the United States, 1796-1838, completely updated by Walter Breen 1992, Bowers and Merena Galleries. This comprehensive work adds to the original work by Browning and is an
extremely useful complement to Reiver’s work as a tool to identify and understand die marriages in the Bust Quarter series.

There is a book by DuPhorne which some find useful. It utilizes a different numbering system, however, and is hard to use for some collectors.

There are at least three additional projects about these coins to appear in the future; a series of pictographic studies on rare varieties of the minor silver Bust Coins, an in-depth study of die states, and price guide for all known die marriages.

Science and Liberty
Pattern Quarter 1792
(speculative)

CoinFacts.com --  1792 Pattern Coins, Die Trials, and Fantasies

Draped Bust Quarters
Small Eagle Reverse 1796

CoinFacts.com (Information Pages by Type and Date)
NGC information pages via The Tulving Company
PCGS Coin Guide

Draped Bust Quarters
Heraldic Eagle Reverse
1804 to 1807

CoinFacts.com (Information Pages by Type and Date)
NGC information pages via The Tulving Company
PCGS Coin Guide
A rare 1806 B8 Quarter.

Capped Bust Quarters
1815 to 1838

CoinFacts.com (Information Pages by Type and Date)
Open Collar Quarters -- NGC information pages via The Tulving Company
Closed Collar Quarters -- NGC information pages via The Tulving Company
Open Collar Quarters -- PCGS Coin Guide
Closed Collar Quarters -- PCGS Coin Guide
Emision Order of 1818 B7 and 1818 B9 Quarters