1834 Capped Bust Quarter Proof : A Collector’s Guide

By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
 

The Philadelphia Mint struck 286,000 Capped Bust Quarters for circulation in 1834, as well as an estimated 10 1834 Capped Bust Quarter Proofs using a die marriage known today as Browning 2. Browning 2 was used to strike business strikes and Proofs and it is believed that this was the first die marriage deployed to strike 1834 Capped Bust Quarters.

The Browning-2 die pair is easy to identify as the reverse features a tongued or lanģued eagle. This detail is not on the four die marriages used to produce business strikes. Browning-2 shares the same obverse as the Browning-1 business strike: the “4” is canted to the left of the curl, the lower right star is close to the curl, and the tip of the upper left star points to the top of the curl and ribbon.

For this issue, we do not find Walter Breen’s Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins, 1722-1989 (1989) to be of much use. Steve Tompkins’ Early United States Quarter, 1796-1838 (2008), which is better researched and more clearly laid out, suggests that the B-2 die marriage was first used to strike Proofs and then deployed to strike coins for circulation. If this is the case, then the following information suggests that production of the 1834 Capped Bust Quarter began no earlier than November 1834.

The 1834 Capped Bust Quarter Proof has a famous connection to the 1804 Draped Bust Dollar. On November 11, 1834, Secretary of State John Forsythe wrote to United States Mint Director Samuel Moore requesting that the Mint assemble sets for the King of Siam and the Sultan of Muscat. The sets were to include all denominations of coins in use and laid in wooden boxes covered in plain morocco, one yellow and one red.

In 1834, all but two denominations were current. The silver dollar and the gold eagle, the largest denominations of their respective metallic compositions, were placed on moratorium during the Jefferson Administration to curb the wholesale export of gold and silver. For these Proof sets, the Mint fashioned 1804-dated novodels of the obsolete Draped Bust Dollar and Liberty Cap Eagle. For the rest of the coins, the Mint used the 1834 designs.

Following the positive reception of the first two sets, the State Department requested additional sets later.

The American diplomatic mission delivered the Muscat/Siam sets in 1835 and 1836. The complete King of Siam set famously turned up in England in 1962, just as Eric P. Newman and Ken Bressett’s Fantastic 1804 Dollar was being printed. The Siam set disproved a key assertion of the book, causing the publisher to cull the print run to make corrections.

At least seven examples created from these dies are known to survive.

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Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens

Top Population: PCGS PR67CAM (1, 9/2024), NGC PF66+CAM (1, 9/2024), and CAC PR67CAM (1:0 stickered:graded, 9/2024).

• PCGS PR67CAM CAC #31385749: Col. E.H.R. Green; Green Estate; Green Collection purchased by the partnership of Eric P. Newman and Burdette G. Johnson; Eric P. Newman, by trade; Washington University of St. Louis, by gift, ca. 1952-54; Mrs. Emery May Norweb Collection, via New Netherlands Coin Company, by sale, November 5, 1954; ” The Norweb Collection, Part II,” Bowers and Merena, March 1988, Lot 1554; “The Andre Dawson Collection,” Heritage Auctions, September 1998, Lot 6650; Bowers and Merena, August 1999, Lot 134; Superior Galleries, February 2001, Lot 5430; Heritage Auctions, November 2002, Lot 11487; D. Brent Pogue Family. As PCGS PR67CAM #31385749. “The D. Brent Pogue Family Collection, Part I,” Stack’s Bowers / Sotheby’s, May 2015, Lot 1086 – $329,000. Pogue novelty insert. Norweb on insert. Vivid target rainbow toning. CAC added since the May 2015 sale.

• NGC PF66+*UCAM CAC #2037631-035: “Colonel” E.H.R. Green; Green Estate; Eric P. Newman and B.G. Johnson, d.b.a. St. Louis Stamp & Coin Co.; Eric P. Newman, $20.00; “The Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society Collection, Part II,” Heritage Auctions, November 2013, Lot 33359; “The Greensboro Collection, Part VII,” Heritage Auctions, January 10, 2019, Lot 4452 – $198,000. Antiqued bullseye toning on both sides.
• PCGS PR65 #21594247: King of Siam, 1836; Purchased by David Spink, in England, 1962; intermediaries; Mike Bobb (Mike’s Coin Chest of Torrance, California), 2001; NGC PF65 #1629417-004. intermediaries; Dan O’Dowd (The Tyrant Collection).
• NGC PF65 #1742057-005: Heritage Auctions, January 6, 2011, Lot 5331 – $33,350; Heritage Auctions, October 13, 2011, Lot 3576 – $26,450; “The Gibney Family Collection,” Heritage Auctions, April 24, 2021, Lot 5022 – $31,200. Apricot gold and blue patina on both sides. Two dark toning spots between curl and star 6.

• PCGS PR64+ #39328351: DLRC, July 19, 2020, Lot 651959 – $62,000; Del Loy Hansen. Vivid target rainbow toning on both sides. 
• PCGS PR64+ #25625398: Imaged on PCGS CoinFacts.
• Proof: National Numismatic Collection.

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Coin Specifications

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