Errors on gold coins are rare, especially major errors like a broadstrike that results in part the design being struck off-center. Such an example of an 1855 Coronet gold $2.50 quarter eagle, graded MS-63 by Numismatic Guaranty Co., sold for $26,400 in Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Aug. 19 auction. Another broadstruck example of the type is listed in the book 100 Greatest Error Coins, confirming the desirability of this error. 

The auctioneer explained, “Failing to properly seat itself within the collar, the planchet on which this 1855 quarter eagle was struck instead lay atop the collar,” adding, “The resulting impression from the dies, while imparting full detail to all design elements, caused the planchet to spread out, which is most readily evident as crescents of unstruck planchet along the upper left obverse and lower left reverse.”

The surfaces were described as particularly attractive, with semi-reflective fields and “both sides dressed in vivid golden-yellow color.”

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