Classic Head Quarter Eagles by die pairing

描述: A number of years ago, I purchased a Classic Head Half Eagle as a type coin. Once I read some research by John McCloskey in "America's Gold Coinage, Coinage of the Americas Conference", I became intrigued and started collecting the Half Eagles by die pairing. I avoided the Quarter Eagles from the era because they were “too small” and were almost never seen.
Fast forward a couple of years and I met Daryl Haynor who was about to publish “the bible” on Classic Head Gold, “Classic Gold Coins of 1834-1839”. That inspired me to complete my collection of Half Eagle die marriages (34 pairings spanning 5 years and 3 mints) and to begin a collection of Quarter Eagles. I decided to focus my collecting on a complete set of Quarter Eagles by date and mint (1834-1837 in Philadelphia, 1838 in Philly and Charlotte, and 1839 in Philly, Charlotte, Dahlonega and New Orleans), a total of 10 coins. Three plus years later, I finally accomplished that goal. I purchased a few varieties but realized that collecting the Quarter Eagles by die marriage is VERY difficult because of the extreme rarity of a number of the die pairings.
When Daryl Haynor decided to auction his collection of Classic Head Gold in August 2022. I was extremely fortunate and picked up three R7, one R6 and one R5+ Classic Head in that sale. This gave me impetus to try to complete the set of circulation strike Classic Head Quarter Eagles by die pairing.
There are 28 die combinations in the series but two of those are proof only and virtually uncollectible. That leaves 26 circulation strike coins in the series. Thanks to Carlos Cabrerra of Crescent City Numismatics, who has located a couple of collections that I could select coins from, I now have all circulation strike die pairings in the series. All are in PCGS holders except the 1839-C HM-2 which is an NGC AU53 slab.