1926 $2.50 Indian Head Quarter Eagle PCGS MS65

Here’s a beautiful golden treasure to include in your collection. Writes gold specialist David Akers of the 1926: “Most examples of this date are very frosty and lustrous with a sharp strike. Color varies, with some specimens having a pale rose gold color and others having a rich greenish gold color. The ‘eye appeal’ of the top grade specimens of this issue is among the best, if not the absolute best, in the series.” PCGS has graded 891 as MS65 with 155 finer. Collectors Universe gives this issue a price of $2,150.00.

Bela Lyon Pratt took inspiration from the indigenous people of our land to craft his beautiful Indian head design. Sioux Indian chief Sitting Bull (in 1885) wearing his eagle feather headdress. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

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."