Interestingly, at least several hundred 1796 quarters in Mint State were preserved at the time of issue. The late Abe Kosoff told of seeing a hoard of dozens of these which came on the market in the early 1940s through Philadelphia dealer James Macallister, who obtained them from the estate of Col. E.H.R. Green. Each piece was said to have been prooflike and virtually perfect in preservation. Apparently the hoard was sold intact, allegedly to a Wall Street broker. What has happened to it in the meantime is anyone's guess. Perhaps some day that long-forgotten hoard of 1796 quarters will come on the market, and if it does I would like nothing better than to have the chance to offer them for sale! One of the delights of being a professional numismatist is the handling from time to time of surprising hoards of one coin or another - groups which have either been long forgotten or which no one knew existed.

On this subject, I recall fondly the Emery-Nichols Collection which we handled at auction a few years ago. Around the turn of the century S. Benton Emery was a numismatist of renown and was a major client of the Chapman brothers and other dealers of the day. He acquired numerous rarities in virtually all series, including many Proof sets ordered directly from the Philadelphia Mint. The holding stayed in his family and passed to Walter P. Nichols, a professional accountant who at one time was a member of the American Numismatic Association Board of Governors and who also served as official distributor for the York County (Maine) commemorative half dollars.

After Nichols' death in the early 1940s, the holding was relegated to a bank vault and was forgotten. When the Nichols heirs approached my company in the 1980s and contracted to have us catalogue and present the coins for sale, it was like a dream come true. Virtually every piece was in its original wrappings, some bearing notations from 80 years earlier! As the collection had been carefully preserved, nearly all pieces were beautiful gems. When all was said and done and the collection had been catalogued, publicized, and sold to new bidders, the record books had to be rewritten. One thing I have learned as a professional numismatist over the years is this: quality never goes out of style.

After 1796 no quarter dollars were minted until 1804, at which time the Draped Bust obverse was employed in combination with the Heraldic Eagle reverse, to create a type which was used through 1807. Of the dates produced in this span the 1804 is the rarest. Only a few examples can lay claim to being in Mint State, a notable specimen of which was sold at an auction by Lester Merkin in the 1970s for the then-unheard of price of $25,000. Undoubtedly this coin, if auctioned today, would stand a chance of bringing 10 times that sum! Most quarter dollars of the 1804-1807 type are weakly struck. This is particularly true of pieces dated 1806 and 1807. Some 1807 quarters must have been as flat as the proverbial pancake at the moment they left the dies.