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Coins/ Quarters / Early Quarters/ 1827/3 Original

FINENESS .8924ASW 0.19336 OZT6.74 G

Overview History Varieties Key Dates Collecting Checklist References

Issue RecordKEY DATEPhiladelphia89.24% Silver1 of 32 issues

1827/3 Original Capped Bust, large size Quarter

The record delivers 4,000 quarters in 1827 and no circulating 1827 quarter is known — the only 1827-dated pieces are two proof strikings. The Original, eight known, is the coin whose finest example sold for $227 in March 1864, in the middle of the Civil War, when the Mickley 1804 dollar would bring $750 three years later; the same coin made $705,000 in the Pogue sale of 2015. Browning's own plate coin of this issue is plate-matched into the modern census, and the plate is reproduced on this site. Auction-record field $444,000 PR65 (January 2019); the census field carries the higher Pogue figure — the two PCGS fields disagree and are cited separately.

1827/3 Original · Capped Bust, large size Quarter

1827/3 OriginalPhotography pending

The numbers, and what kind of numbers they are

Every figure carries its evidence class. Press a class to open the record behind it — what it rests on, by what method, and what the series says you should not conclude from it.

RECORDED DELIVERY

4,000

The Mint recorded what the Chief Coiner DELIVERED in a calendar year, not what it struck bearing a date. Where the registry combines years, the split is a reconstruction and the class says so.

DATED ATTRIBUTION

What the trade assigns to coins bearing this date. A modern allocation by an outside authority, not a federal record.

ESTIMATED SURVIVORS

An estimate of how many still exist in any grade, not a count of coins anyone has seen. Every issue in this series carries one, which is not true of any other series here.

DIE MARRIAGES

How many obverse/reverse die pairings are catalogued for this issue. A marriage is a distinct pair of hand-cut dies, which is what makes these coins collectable by variety rather than by date alone.

Specifications

SpecificationValue

DENOMINATIONQuarter

DESIGNERRobert Scot (Draped Bust obverse, Small Eagle and Heraldic Eagle reverses) · John Reich (Capped Bust)

COMPOSITION89.24% silver, 10.76% copper — 92 13/16 grains of pure silver in 104 grains of standard silver

WEIGHT6.74 g

SILVER CONTENT0.19336 ozt

DIAMETERNot fixed by statute — which is the point of 1831. The Act of April 2, 1792 specifies weight and fineness and says nothing about diameter, so when the Mint reduced the quarter's diameter and thickened the planchet in 1831 it needed no legislation, passed none, and left no document explaining the decision.

EDGEReeded

MINTPhiladelphia only — the branch mints opened in 1838 and the first branch-mint quarter is the 1840-O

MINT MARKNone. No early quarter carries a mint mark.

DIE MARRIAGES1 ("the Original") — reverse cracked in two places, curved-base 2

The primary record

Every document behind the figures above. Where OunceDesk holds a copy, the row opens it.

Report of the Director of the Mint for calendar 1827
Held in the Archive · behind recorded delivery

PCGS CoinFacts — Draped Bust and Capped Bust quarter categories and ~30 major-variety pages
External authority — not held by OunceDesk · behind dated attribution

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Hard Money. Hard Numbers. · Not investment advice. Some links pay us a commission — disclosures. Affiliate economics never determine research conclusions or rankings. © 2026 OunceDesk. Every figure classed OBSERVED / DERIVED / ESTIMATED / SPECULATIVE.