1796 $2 1/2 No Stars on Obverse, BD-1, High R.7, XF45 NGC....

"...the thought of rediscovering so important a coin was firmly implanted and I have attempted to examine every 1796 no-star quarter eagle that I possibly could over the past seven years. In 1972 [sic, 1971 is intended] a coin dealer and close friend of mine by the name of Mike Brownlee brought to my office a 1796 quarter eagle which he had recently acquired at a coin show. He was merely showing it to me as a matter of interest for he knew that I would not be interested in the coin. He knew that I already had a nicer example of the 1796 no-star quarter eagle. His mistake was that he had not noticed the fact that the lost reverse was on his coin. You can imagine his surprise when I let out a loud yell, 'This is it, this is it," for he did not know what I was talking about. I proceeded to explain to him that the coin in my hand was a specimen of the reverse die referred to by Edgar H. Adams in his private notebook..."

"I was lucky to find this coin. In the early 1990s I went to a few Wilmington [Delaware] shows, mostly for the chance to see Jules Reiver so we could discuss the 1801 half dime research we were then collaborating on. I saw this coin at the Long Island Numismatics table. It was clearly attributed as the rare Hilt 2-A [BD-1]. I knew what it was. I had the Hilt book in my car--just in case. So I knew that it was very rare. But, I did not know that I would see only one other example offered for sale in the next 15+ years--the Bass duplicate, which was dismal due to heavy scratches. I also had not yet fully decided to pursue a complete variety collection of quarter eagles. But I did understand that getting the rarities early made sense and I bought it. That purchase pushed me to try to get more of the quarter eagles and I was able to purchase a few more at the Heritage ANA sale the next month..."

"In the course of our [John Whitney Walter and Robert Hilt's] discussions, I learned about Robert's 'quest' to obtain an example of the 2-A [BD-1] variety. Knowing how much he coveted having one, when I viewed lot 332 at Stack's during the viewing of the Stack's portion of Auction '82, I thought to myself, that it wouldn't be proper for me to outbid Robert for this coin, because without his knowledge which he imparted to me about its very existence, I would not have bid on it because I had found a much finer example of what I would have thought previously was the same variety. I never spoke to Robert about not bidding, or that the coin was coming up at auction, but I was there at the auction and knew he was bidding...Bob never knew I laid off the 2-A [BD-1] so he could get it..."