1859 Old Reverse

The 1859 Old Reverse quarter eagle is the rarer of the two reverse hub varieties Philadelphia produced for the year, with surviving examples accounting for a clear minority of the combined 39,444-piece umbrella mintage figure. The Old Reverse hub had been in continuous service since the series began in 1840, carrying the larger heraldic eagle Christian Gobrecht prepared at the start of the Coronet quarter eagle program. When Mint engravers introduced the modified New Reverse hub during 1859, working dies prepared from the older master die continued to enter service alongside the new tooling rather than being withdrawn outright. The result is a transitional year where both hub families coexist on dated 1859 production, with the Old Reverse identifiable by its larger eagle proportions, deeper shield detail, and the spacing pattern of its claw-held arrows and olive branch.

Authentication of the 1859 Old Reverse rests almost entirely on direct comparison against published reference plates from David Akers and Q. David Bowers, with the reverse die geometry providing the sole positive identification method. Examination should be done under 5x to 10x magnification, with particular attention to the eagle wing-tip placement relative to the surrounding lettering, shield-outline thickness, and the angular relationships within the claw devices. Pedigree carries unusual weight for this variety since attributed examples have moved through specialist auction venues for decades and properly designated coins enter the market with documented chain-of-ownership records that reinforce the reverse identification. Physical specifications match the broader 1859 Philadelphia output at 4.18 grams, 0.900 fineness, 18 millimeters, and a fully reeded edge.

Survivor counts for the Old Reverse are difficult to establish precisely because attribution lags far behind raw collector activity, but specialists estimate the variety accounts for roughly one in six to one in eight of the surviving 1859 Philadelphia population. Properly attributed examples in older holders or graded under the explicit Old Reverse designation command meaningful premiums over standard 1859 Philadelphia coins, and the variety appeals primarily to collectors building deeper Coronet die-study collections or pursuing the recognized Akers-Bowers reverse pairings. See the full Liberty Head Quarter Eagle series history.