SEPTEMBER 21
1796•Capped Bust Right Quarter Eagle ($2.50)
1951•Carver-Washington Half Dollar
2026•Working Dogs Coin Designs Unveiled
The First United States Quarter Eagles Are Delivered
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On September 21, 1796, the United States Mint made its first recorded delivery of quarter eagles—just 66 gold coins worth $2.50 each. The tiny delivery inaugurated a denomination that would remain part of American coinage, intermittently, until 1929.
These first quarter eagles were the 1796 Capped Bust Right, No Stars type, one of the most distinctive and coveted early federal gold coins. The obverse shows Liberty facing right beneath the word LIBERTY, but unlike virtually every other early United States gold type, the field contains no stars. The reverse carries a heraldic eagle adapted from the Great Seal of the United States.
Only 66 pieces were included in that first delivery. Modern die research strongly associates them with the extremely rare BD-1 die marriage, of which only a handful are known today.
The Quarter Eagle Was Born in the Coinage Act of 1792
The denomination existed in law before it existed in metal.
The Coinage Act of April 2, 1792 established the basic structure of the new federal monetary system. Congress authorized three gold denominations: the $10 eagle, the $5 half eagle and the $2.50 quarter eagle.
The names sound unusual today because Americans no longer use the eagle as an everyday unit of account. In the early federal system, however, an “eagle” meant ten dollars. Half an eagle was five dollars; one quarter of an eagle was two dollars and fifty cents.
The quarter eagle would eventually become one of the longest-lived gold denominations in United States history.
Why Gold Coinage Did Not Begin Immediately
Congress created the Mint in 1792, but gold coins did not appear at once.
The early Mint faced technical, financial and legal obstacles. Machinery had to be built, dies prepared, bullion obtained and skilled workers recruited.
One particularly troublesome requirement involved financial bonds for key officers responsible for precious metals. The original statutory amounts were extremely high relative to their salaries.
Until the bonding problem was resolved, the Mint could not freely begin precious-metal coinage.
Silver coinage began in 1794. Gold followed in 1795.
The first regular United States gold denomination struck was the $5 half eagle in 1795.
The $10 eagle followed later that year.
The $2.50 quarter eagle had to wait until 1796.
This sequence reflected how early Mint production actually worked. Depositors brought gold bullion to the Mint and often influenced the denominations in which their metal was returned.
The half eagle proved particularly useful and popular. The quarter eagle, by contrast, was often demanded in very small quantities.
That limited demand helps explain why early quarter-eagle mintages are so low.
The first quarter-eagle delivery came on September 21, 1796.
It consisted of only 66 pieces.
At $2.50 each, the entire delivery had a face value of just $165.
That is astonishingly small for the inauguration of a federal denomination.
Modern numismatic research identifies these first coins as almost certainly the BD-1 variety in the Bass-Dannreuther system used to classify early United States gold die marriages.
Only a tiny number of BD-1 examples survive.
The Reverse Die Apparently Failed
Why did production stop after only 66 coins?
The evidence points to a failed reverse die.
Surviving BD-1 coins show substantial die cracking. Specialists believe the reverse broke early in production, forcing the Mint to suspend quarter-eagle coinage until a replacement die could be prepared.
In the modern Mint, replacement tooling can be produced within an enormous industrial system.
In 1796, die preparation was slower and much more dependent on hand work.
A broken die could halt production of a low-priority denomination for weeks or months.
Quarter-eagle production resumed later in the year.
On December 8, the Mint delivered another 897 No Stars quarter eagles.
These are associated with the BD-2 die marriage.
Together, the September and December deliveries account for 963 No Stars quarter eagles dated 1796.
That total—963 coins—is the figure generally listed as the mintage for the unique No Stars design type.
Even 963 is an extraordinarily small mintage, but the first September delivery was only a fraction of it.
The quarter eagle changed almost immediately.
A later 1796-dated obverse added stars around Liberty.
The With Stars variety is associated with a delivery of 432 coins on January 14, 1797.
That means the date 1796 contains two major quarter-eagle types: No Stars and With Stars.
The No Stars design is a one-year type. Once stars were added, they remained part of the Capped Bust Right quarter-eagle obverse through 1807.
A Famous Numismatic Mystery
Why were stars omitted from the first quarter eagle?
No definitive answer survives.
Stars were a familiar feature of early federal gold coinage, usually symbolizing the states.
PCGS notes that the No Stars quarter eagle is an unusual exception among early U.S. gold coins. Perhaps the omission was deliberate. Perhaps it was an experiment. Perhaps Mint officials simply decided afterward that the open field looked unfinished.
Whatever the reason, the decision created one of the most recognizable type coins in American numismatics.
The design is generally attributed to Robert Scot, the first Chief Engraver of the United States Mint.
Liberty appears on the obverse facing right, with flowing hair and a cap. LIBERTY is placed above her portrait and 1796 below.
The absence of stars leaves unusually broad open fields around the portrait.
That simplicity gives the coin a striking appearance compared with the star-filled designs that followed.
It also makes marks and surface disturbances particularly noticeable to collectors.
The reverse is far more elaborate.
It shows a heraldic eagle derived from the Great Seal of the United States.
A shield covers the eagle’s breast. The eagle holds arrows and an olive branch, while a ribbon bearing E PLURIBUS UNUM passes through the composition. Clouds and stars appear above.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds the design.
Notably, there is no numerical denomination such as “2 1/2 D.” on the coin.
Users were expected to recognize its value through size, weight, gold content and familiarity with the denomination.
A Small Gold Coin With Serious Buying Power
The quarter eagle weighed approximately 4.37 grams and measured about 20 millimeters in diameter.
Its alloy was approximately 91.7 percent gold and 8.3 percent copper.
Physically, it was a small coin.
Economically, it was not.
Two dollars and fifty cents represented meaningful purchasing power in 1796. That helps explain why surviving early quarter eagles often show less heavy circulation wear than copper and small silver coins.
Gold pieces were frequently used in larger transactions, held by banks or stored as wealth rather than repeatedly spent for ordinary purchases.
The early Mint did not manufacture gold coins simply because officials wanted a certain number in circulation.
Its production depended heavily on bullion deposits.
Individuals and institutions brought precious metal to the Mint and received coin in return, subject to the rules of the period.
Depositors could have preferences about denominations.
The $5 half eagle was often favored. Quarter eagles were requested less consistently.
As PCGS historian Q. David Bowers has emphasized, quarter-eagle production during the early period could be sporadic and remarkably small.
The denomination’s early production history is filled with gaps.
After its introduction, the Mint did not strike quarter eagles every year.
Some dates were produced in only a few hundred or a few thousand pieces.
Even the relatively “large” early mintages would be microscopic by modern standards.
The denomination was useful, but it never approached the demand for the half eagle.
That pattern created a series packed with rarities.
Specialists classify early gold coins by die marriage—the particular combination of obverse and reverse dies used to strike them.
The first 1796 quarter-eagle marriage is known as BD-1.
Research by Harry W. Bass Jr., John Dannreuther and other specialists helped establish the production sequence.
The die state evidence fits the September 21 delivery of 66 pieces remarkably well.
Stack’s Bowers has described only about six positively confirmed BD-1 examples.
Heritage has called the variety the “Holy Grail” among early quarter eagles.
From 66 Coins to a Major Rarity
A first delivery of 66 coins does not mean exactly 66 survive.
Far from it.
Gold coins were vulnerable to melting whenever their bullion value or changing monetary standards made melting profitable.
Others were lost, damaged or exported.
More than two centuries of attrition reduced the first delivery to only a handful of identifiable survivors.
Every confirmed BD-1 quarter eagle is therefore an artifact of the very first day recorded for the denomination.
The later December delivery makes the 1796 No Stars quarter eagle more obtainable than the BD-1 variety alone, but “obtainable” is relative.
PCGS estimates roughly 100 to 125 No Stars examples may survive across all grades, although historical estimates have varied considerably.
Demand is intense because the coin is required for a complete collection of major United States gold design types.
There is no later inexpensive date with the same No Stars design.
If a collector wants the type, 1796 is the only choice.
The rarity and historical importance of the 1796 No Stars quarter eagle have pushed exceptional examples into the highest tier of the U.S. coin market.
PCGS records an auction result of $2.16 million for a high-grade example sold in 2022.
That price was not for one of the six-piece BD-1 rarities specifically, but it illustrates the extraordinary demand for the No Stars type as a whole.
A coin originally worth $2.50 has become a multimillion-dollar artifact of the first federal gold era.
Why the Quarter Eagle Lasted
Despite chronically low production in its earliest decades, the quarter eagle survived as a denomination.
Its designs changed repeatedly: Capped Bust Right, Capped Bust Left, Classic Head, Liberty Head and finally the Indian Head design.
The denomination continued through 1929.
Its last major design, Bela Lyon Pratt’s incuse Indian Head quarter eagle, looked radically different from Robert Scot’s 1796 coin.
Yet both represented the same value established by Congress in 1792: one quarter of a ten-dollar eagle.
September 21, 1796 marks the first recorded delivery of United States quarter eagles.
There were only 66.
Those coins inaugurated a denomination that would span more than 130 years, yet their first production run appears to have been stopped almost immediately by a broken reverse die.
The Mint returned to the denomination in December, producing 897 additional No Stars coins, and then changed the design by adding stars.
That sequence transformed the first 66 pieces into something extraordinary: not merely the first quarter eagles, but a tiny die variety at the beginning of one of America’s great gold-coin series.
Today, only a handful of BD-1 examples are confirmed.
September 21 therefore captures the early United States Mint in miniature—handmade dies, fragile equipment, tiny production runs, bullion-driven demand and coins whose rarity was created not by marketing but by the practical limitations of a young national mint.
ALSO ON THIS DAY
1951 — Carver-Washington Half Dollar — Congress amended commemorative legislation to honor George Washington Carver with Booker T. Washington
2026 — Working Dogs Coin Designs Unveiled — The U.S. Mint unveiled the designs for the 2027 Working Dogs Commemorative Coin Program.