1825

The 1825 quarter eagle reports a Mint delivery of 4,434 pieces, the largest single-year output of John Reich's Capped Head Left sub-type before the 1826/5 overdate and the 1827. Production resumed at Philadelphia after the 1822 and 1823 hiatus, and the engraving department was now working from fresh dies rather than the repunched leftovers that had produced the 1824/1. The date stands clean, with no underlying digit, and is paired with the same large-diameter portrait Reich modified from his 1808 Capped Bust Right work. Survivorship is light across all grades, a pattern typical of pre-1834 quarter eagles, where the bulk of original mintage was either melted after the 1834 weight reduction made the old gold pieces worth more as bullion or lost to attrition during decades of circulation as everyday currency.

Authentication begins with the metallurgical standard. A genuine 1825 weighs 4.37 grams in 0.9167 fine gold under the pre-1834 specification, sits at 18.5 millimeters across, and carries a reeded edge with coin alignment; any underweight piece, off-color surface, or smooth-edge example warrants immediate suspicion and likely indicates a struck or cast counterfeit. The second diagnostic addresses the historic threat for early gold: cast counterfeits betray themselves through grainy field texture, softened relief in the star points and shield lines, and a visible parting seam on the edge that no genuine reeded collar would produce. Genuine surfaces show clean, sharply defined fields under five to ten power magnification, and the date digits sit firm against the field with no flow lines suggesting transferred imagery.

For the date collector working the Capped Head Left sub-type, the 1825 is the workhorse year. Population data from PCGS and NGC together suggests roughly one to two hundred surviving examples across all grades, with most certified pieces falling in the VF through AU range and Mint State coins genuinely scarce. Certified examples are the safer purchase given the counterfeit history attached to early gold, and a CAC sticker on a problem-free piece carries meaningful price premium at auction. See the full Capped Bust Quarter Eagle series history.