Item of the Week: Rarity of 1864-S quarter equals a good buy

There are all sorts of tough coins buried away in the issues of the 19th century that few seem to know or appreciate. The 1864-S quarter fits that description. It’s not cheap, and it’s priced today at a fraction of its potential price.

It is a minor miracle that there was an 1864-S quarter. The Civil War had created problems for the United States Mint, the most basic being that coins were not circulating. The public had decided to hedge their bets on the outcome of the war by hoarding gold and silver coins.

The U.S. Mint really was trying to create coins that somehow would circulate. The composition of the Indian head cent was changed, and the 2-cent piece was produced for the first time. Two such dramatic moves alone would be a full plate of activities for many years.

To its credit, the Mint was trying to produce silver and gold coins even though they were unlikely to circulate long before being hoarded or exported. In all the chaos in the East, the San Francisco mint was a natural for the production of silver and gold coins. It’s hard to say just what was going on in the channels of commerce in San Francisco at the time, for not unlike some more recent times in our history, San Francisco and the state of California marched to their own drum.

Since the San Francisco branch mint opened, the coinage problems in the West had a local answer. San Francisco was capable of meeting Western coinage needs. San Francisco only made silver and gold coins, but there seemed to be a general feeling in the West that anything other than gold and silver was not really welcome. Apparently, if change of less than five cents was needed, people just compensated with a free donkey ride.

All that was really required from the East were dies to be used in making the new coins each year, but in 1864, even that might have stretched their luck – there were miles of trouble between San Francisco and the battlefields back East.

But the quarter dies did arrive, and there was quarter production in 1864, although 20,000 pieces were not overwhelming, even for San Francisco. Moreover, the city was not a hotbed of collecting – a fact emphasized by the lack of uncirculated examples of issues from San Francisco during the 1800s.

The 1864-S only helps to confirm that idea. There may be a couple of uncirculated examples known. It has a listed price of $22,500, which would be a steal. In MS-60, the 1864-S is listed at $7,000, and you will not find many of them, either. In fact, just finding a garden variety AU-50 at $3,750 won’t be easy.

Finding any 1864-S is not easy. Start with that 20,000 mintage – there are no 20,000-piece 20th century quarters, as the 1864-S even makes the 1916 look common. You can find Seated Liberty quarters with similar or lower mintages and pay extremely high prices for them. The prices are fair, but the scarcity of circulated issues is extreme.
For an 1864-S in G-4, you can expect to pay $800. In VG-8, the price is $1,000.

With no solid collector base to save them well over 100 years ago and plenty of perils since, there simply is no supply. There are no hoards or groups or promotions. If you find an 1864-S, it is one of very few and well worth owning at the current prices.