Pre-1858 gold coins are so rare that years can sometimes elapse between offerings. For Proof gold in the 1840s, make that decades. David Akers' reference on Quarter Eagles lists only a single Proof example of the date, this having appeared in Numismatic Galleries Memorable Sale in 1948, curiously, an unplated lot. Walter Breen traced three including one in the Smithsonian, and mentioned a fourth "rumored" example. A three-piece gold Proof set was sold in Bowers and Ruddy's Sale of the Paul D. Williams Collection, September 1979 as Lot 1818, and though the pieces are plated it is not possible to attribute this coin with certainty from the plates. In the 1840s, gold coins such as this were likely issued as part of cased Proof sets made up for just a handful of numismatists and for presentation purposes. For a given date in the 1840s, the number of Proof quarter eagles, half eagles, and eagles can typically be counted on the fingers of one hand, with some fingers left over. The National Numismatic Collection in the Smithsonian Institution has a run of Proofs, kept since the time of issue, but in the private sector all others range from completely unavailable to exceedingly rare, as here. No one, not even John J. Pittman, was ever able to put together a significant run of early Proof gold within a given denomination.

The example to the left was offered by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the Amherst & Waccabuc Collections, where it did not meet the reserve.