1914-D $2.50 Indian Head Quarter Eagle NGC MS64

Here’s an attractive piece with a unique design concept to add to your collection. Jeff Garrett writes, "Like the 1914 Philadelphia issue, the 1914–D was not saved and circulated widely. Low grade examples can be found rather easily, but in … Gem condition, the date is very rare.” This issue has a lower mintage of 240,000. NGC has graded 445 in MS64 with 100 finer. Collector’s Universe gives this issue a price of $4,500.00 in MS64.

The Denver Mint, where this great collectible was struck in 1914. Photo: Library of Congress.

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] was one 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." This series was struck from 1908 through 1929.