The Indian Head $2.50 Gold Piece is a very interesting and unique coin. The designer was Bela Lyon Pratt, who was trained under Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Her design was used for the half eagle, or $5, as well. It is said to be the first US coin with an actual Native American as the model (earlier coins did not have real Native Americans on them, but rather Americans portrayed with Native American headdresses *cough, Indian Head Cent, cough*.��

The design of the coin was the first US coin that was incuse, as well. This means that the design is actually sunk into the fields so the highest part of the coin is actually the fields. This interesting design makes the coin very difficult to grade, and it was the bane of the Summer Seminar Grading #1 course for a certain unnamed YN. 😉 The only part of the design (on some coins) that was raised higher than the fields was the mintmark (either Denver/San Francisco, and New Orleans for the half eagles).�

There were 15 different mintmark combinations made, with 1911-D being the for and away key date of the series. There were only 55,680 1911-D quarter eagles made, which was the only year and mintmark combination with less than 100,000 made during the duration of the series. The semi-key 1914 is easy to come by with an above average strike, and nice original yellow gold color. They are rare in high mint states, however, and some experts say that in grades MS-66 and higher, they may be rarer than the key 1911-D. There are only three 1914 $2.50 Indians that are graded MS-66 and above, and four 1911-Ds in MS-66 and above holders.�

Keep collecting,

Thatcoinguy