1909 $2.50 Indian Head Quarter Eagle, NGC MS64+

Gold specialist David Akers writes, "In lower Mint State grades, the 1909 is scarce but certainly not rare and it is not particularly difficult to locate specimens in the MS-60 to 63 range. The population thins out rapidly after that..." This is one of those near gem beauties! He continues, "Most Mint State specimens are well struck .... The lustre is almost always very good, and really choice specimens are often very similar in overall appearance to the satin finish Proofs of the year. Many others, however, are fully frosty. Color is typically a light to medium yellow gold." This is one of those "fully frosty" examples!

Noted numismatic scholar and art critic Cornelius Vermeule writes, "Bela Lyon Pratt of Boston presented a novel coin.... an Indian brave in war bonnet adorns the obverse, and [a] Ptolemaic eagle with wings closed walks along on the reverse...The innovations [on this coin were] of technique as much as design. Instead of being modeled in relief within a protecting rim, the Indian, the eagle, and the lettering were sunken in incuse or engraved in the uniformly flat plane of the coin .... the [coin shows] more imagination and daring of design than almost any other issue in American history."