1958 25C MS67 认证号02697461, PCGS号5864

1958 25C MS66. John Flanagan owes his numismatic fame less to artistic merit than to the fact that he was a man in the man's world of the early 20th century. In 1931, the Treasury Department decided to follow in the footsteps of the Lincoln cent and issue a circulating coin honoring the bicentennial of President George Washington's birth. After an open competition that the Treasury conducted in association with the Washington Bicentennial Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, judges chose Laura Gardin Fraser's masterful design. Even though art critics had admired Fraser's work since the introduction of the Oregon Trail commemorative half dollar in 1926, Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon's male chauvinism prejudiced the design selection process from the start. His choice, the design by John Flanagan, was confirmed as the winner and upheld even after Ogden L. Mills succeeded to the post of Treasury Secretary in early 1932. While Fraser's superior design remains unknown to all but a handful of numismatic scholars, Flanagan's obviously inferior workmanship can still be admired (albeit in slightly modified form for the state quarter program) on the quarters of today. This piece is a beautiful Superb Gem whose fully lustrous surfaces display pastel antique-gold and soft powder-blue iridescence drifting over the shimmering obverse. The reverse is untoned save for a crescent of tan-russet color near the rim between 9 and 3 o'clock. The underlying mint frost radiates through both sides and both sides are free of even the most inconspicuous bagmark. The design features are well impressed and the above average striking quality completes the tantalizing eye appeal.

David Hall

The 1958 is the fourth lowest mintage 1941-1964 Washington quarter, yet it one of the most common in Gem condition. The low mintage caused a large number of original rolls to be saved by collectors and speculators in the year of issue. Today, all those saved rolls are the source of the many frosty white Gems that survive. There are also a number of beautifully toned Gems from original Government mint sets.

 

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Mitch Spivack

As usual, I agree with all that David said, but I would like to supplement that with a few other interesting points. First, although this date is among the easiest in the series to locate in MS66 and even MS67 grade, when it comes to upper end MS67 quality, the coin becomes fairly scarce as is the case with nearly every silver quarter in this series. Interestingly, at the time of this writing (and PCGS has been open for business for more than (25) years now), not a single MS68 has been graded of this date. Also, of note ... virtually every coin that has achieved the MS67 grade level is a mint set toned or album toned specimen. Blazing superb gems from original rolls (without toning that can often hide imperfections) generally max out at MS66 grade. In my near (25) years of hunting for this date in superb gem brilliant PCGS-MS67 grade, I have located just a single example. Finally, be on the lookout for the "Type B reverse" of this date as finding one already in a MS66 or higher graded PCGS holder would be a great "cherrypick". If you "cherry" an PCGS-MS67 with a Type B reverse of this date, you just might be able to plan your next trip to Disneyland with the profits!