1807

The 1807 quarter eagle closes the Draped Bust chapter on the denomination. Philadelphia delivered 6,812 pieces during the calendar year, the highest figure in the Draped Bust series and the final mintage struck under Robert Scot's design. The format then pivoted in 1808 to John Reich's Capped Bust Right portrait, a redesign catalogued separately on this site, and the quarter eagle denomination went silent altogether after the modest 1808 issue and did not return until 1821. Because 1807 is the last year of the type and posts the largest delivery in the run, it carries dual significance for collectors. Type-set builders treat it as the obvious anchor for the Draped Bust Heraldic Eagle reverse on the $2.5, while date-set builders see it as the natural endpoint of the Scot era. The combination of comparatively higher mintage and identifiable closing-year status keeps the 1807 in steady demand at every grade tier.

Authentication starts with the physical standards. A genuine piece weighs 4.37 grams on a 20 mm planchet of 0.9167 fine gold, carries a fully reeded edge, and shows coin alignment with the reverse rotated 180 degrees from the obverse. Cast counterfeits remain the dominant threat for early gold at this denomination and tend to give themselves away through grainy field surfaces, soft device edges where Liberty's hair curls and the eagle's feather detail lose crispness, and weight that drifts off the 4.37 gram standard by tenths of a gram. A faint seam line at the edge and rims that look slightly rounded rather than sharp are additional cast indicators worth checking under raked light before purchase.

Survival is the strongest in the series, with PCGS census tracking placing the population at roughly 125 to 200 examples across all grades. Circulated pieces in Fine and Very Fine appear at Heritage and Stack's Bowers in the $4,200 to $7,500 range, Extremely Fine grades reach $10,000 to $12,000, and About Uncirculated examples push toward $15,000 to $17,000. Mint State coins remain genuinely scarce and typically begin near $28,000 in MS-60 with choice grades climbing well beyond that benchmark. See the full Draped Bust Quarter Eagle series history.