Remarkable and Rare 1882 Shield Earring
Silver Quarter, Judd-1698, PR67
Tied for Finest Certified

1882 25C Shield Earring Quarter Dollar, Judd-1698, Pollock-1900, Low R.7, PR67 NGC.
Design. The Shield Earring design of George T. Morgan. A youthful Liberty faces right wearing a band with the usual inscription, the band compressing the back portion of her hair. She wears a shield-shaped earring, with stars six left, seven right, date 1882 below. On the reverse a perched, defiant eagle occupies the center, clutching an olive branch and arrows. The reverse design is reminiscent of the Flying Eagle cent obverse and the Gobrecht dollar reverse, although the eagle faces right. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and QUARTER DOLLAR are the peripheral legends. Struck in silver with a reeded edge.

Commentary. The Shield Earring quarter, half, and dollar designs--especially in their native metal, silver--are among the most beautiful and coveted pattern designs of the late 19th century. Pattern specialists generally consider the 1872 Amazonian, the 1879 Schoolgirl, and the 1882 Shield Earring designs to be the most beautiful, but of the three the Shield Earring is the rarest overall. Examples of all three types are represented in this quintessential pattern offering of the Lemus Collection, a "triple play" event that has occurred at Heritage only once previously. In PR67 Star this piece is by far the finest certified at NGC and numerically tied with a single PR67 PCGS example, although they could well represent a single coin (10/08). According to USPatterns.com, nine examples of the silver Shield Earring quarter exist, although we believe some of the pieces in our census below may be duplicates.

Physical Description. Deep iridescent steel-blue and pinkish original patina, with glimmers of sage, provides tremendous eye appeal that complements pristine surfaces. Justly awarded NGC's desirable Star designation for exceptional eye appeal. Another splendid highlight of the remarkable Lemus Collection. Watch the bidder cards fly on this one!

Census. The following census was expanded from information provided by USPatterns.com. As mentioned earlier, we believe that two or possibly three pieces on this list may represent duplicate appearances, and that the actual number of survivors may only be six or seven examples.
1. The Mint Cabinet; The Smithsonian Institution, National Numismatic Collection, inventory number 1985.0441.2070.
2. The Gaston DiBello Collection (Stack's, 5/1970), lot 353; Rudy Sieck; Rogers Fred; The Fred and Ward Collections (Bowers and Merena, 11/1995), lot 2258; Larry Hanks (6/1987); Higman-Alterman; Alhambra/Hanks; Pre-Long Beach Sale (Superior, 9/1999); Pre-Long Beach Sale (Superior, 2/2000).
3. Public Auction Sale (Merkin, 9/1967), lot 555; The Whitney P. Sunderland Collection (Bowers and Merena, 3/1994), lot 1434.
4. Col. E.H.R. Green; James Kelly (5/1943); Jesse Taylor; 61st Sale (New Netherlands, 6/1970), lot 88; Harry Bass Research Foundation.
5. Dr. J. Hewitt Judd; An Illustrated History of United States Coins (Kosoff, 1962); Bowers and Ruddy; Florida Collection; The Julius Turoff Collection (Bowers and Ruddy, 10/1976), lot 1225; Sieck-1981 ANA Sale (Bowers and Ruddy, 7/1981), lot 164. The Pollock plate coin.
6. The Armand Champa Collection (Bowers and Ruddy, 5/1972), lot 1027; The Phillip Warner Sale (Hughes, 1/1980), lot 42; Novoselsky; Alhambra/Hanks; E. Fair Premier Sale (Heritage, 10/1999), lot 5768; Superior FPL (4-7/2000); The Jones Beach Collection (Heritage, 1/2007), lot 1609.
7. A coin once in the possession of Julian Leidman, gunmetal blue-gray toned Gem proof. Possibly a duplicate appearance of one of the coins listed here.
8. The H.P. Smith Sale (S.H.& H. Chapman, 5/1906), lot 1463; John Story Jenks Collection (Henry Chapman, 12/1921), lot 5697; John H. Clapp; Clapp Estate, 1942; Louis Eliasberg, Sr.; The Eliasberg Collection (Bowers and Merena, 5/1997), lot 229.
9. The Randolph S. Rothschild Collection (Stack's, 10/2003), lot 1072. The present coin.
Other Appearances. The following appearances of Judd-1698 may represent earlier citations of the coins listed above, but it is not possible to conclusively link them to the other pedigree chains at this time. The coin was extremely rare before 1910, with only two auction appearances traced, each appearance being part of a three-coin Shield Earring denominational set. It is likely that the same set was offered in two separate appearances. Noted pattern researcher Saul Teichman believes the issue proliferated after William Woodin received several duplicate sets in the famous deal to return the 1877 half union patterns to the Mint Cabinet. Other appearances include:
A. Parmelee Collection (New York Coin and Stamp, 6/1890), lot 252. (possibly the same as number 8 above).
B. Public Auction of Rare Pattern Coins ( Edgar Adams, 2/1911), lot 188.
C. William Woodin's consignment to the 1914 ANS Exhibition.
D. Edgar Adams FPL (circa 1913).
E. King Farouk; Palace Collections of Egypt (Sotheby's, 2/1954), lot 2008 (possibly the same as number 2 above, as Gaston DiBello was one of the few American collectors at the Farouk sale).
From The Lemus Collection, Queller Family Collection Part Two. (#62104)

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