Seated Liberty Quarter

The Seated Liberty Quarter was struck from 1838 to 1891 and is part of the Seated Liberty Series. The Seated Liberty Quarter is our nation’s third twenty-five cent coin.

Specifications

 * Designer: Obverse by Thomas Sully, executed by Christian Gobrecht; Reverse by Christian Gobrecht
 * Obverse Design: Seated Miss Liberty
 * Reverse Design: American Eagle
 * Edge: Reeded
 * Weight: ±6.7 grams
 * Diameter: ±24.3 millimeters
 * Composition:  Silver (±90%), Copper (±10%)
 * Dates Minted: 1838-1891

Background
Compared to the earlier Draped Bust and Capped Bust quarter types, the Seated Liberty quarter had an extraordinarily long run. When the Seated Liberty quarter was first struck in 1838, there was little westward migration, there was no railroad, Native American tribes ruled the what is now the western United States, California was still part of Mexico, and the country was mostly frontier/agrarian except for the major population centers on the East Coast. By 1891, the last year the Seated Liberty quarter was struck, westward migration was complete, California was part of the United States, our nation had fought a Civil War and had moved on to a prosperous industrial “Gilded Age.”

History
On the surface, the design for the Seated Liberty quarter was consistent through its entire run of existence. The basic design featured a Seated Miss Liberty on the obverse, and an eagle on the reverse. But that basic design kept getting tweaked throughout this quarter’s 53-year run. Drapery was added, arrows were added and then subtracted, rays were added and then subtracted, a motto banner was added. This has resulted in eight different design phases of the Seated Liberty quarter.


 * PHASE 1: No Drapery Obverse (1838-1840) – For the first three years, the Seated Liberty quarter featured a Seated Miss Liberty with an empty space between her elbow and her knee.


 * PHASE 2: Drapery Added (1840-1853) – In these years, the Seated Liberty figure now has drapery hanging down from her elbow.


 * PHASE 3: Arrows & Rays Type (1853 )  In 1853 only, the Seated quarter features arrows next to the date (to indicate the new weight standards for silver coins) and rays surrounding the eagle on the reverse.


 * PHASE 4: Arrows, but Rays Removed (1854-55) For these two years, the arrows remained by the date, but the rays on the reverse were removed.


 * PHASE 5: Arrows Removed (1856-65) Now there’s no arrows OR rays!


 * PHASE 6: With Motto (1866-73)-  Starting in 1866, a motto banner was added to the reverse, above the eagle.  This motto read, “In God We Trust”.


 * PHASE 7: Arrows At Date (1873-74) – Yes, we’ve already had a type with arrows at the date, but not a type with arrows at the date AND a motto banner on the reverse!


 * PHASE 8: Arrows At Date Removed (1875-91) – This is essentially the same design type as Phase 6.  The only difference, is that this is POST-Phase 7!

As you can see, if you want a full Seated Liberty type set, it’s going to be comprised of seven or eight coins. If you want a complete date set, you will need 54 different dates. If you want one Seated quarter from each mint, you will need four coins. During its run, the Seated Liberty quarter was struck at the Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco and Carson City mints. The New Orleans mint struck Seated Liberty quarters from 1840 through 1860, after which the Civil War disrupted production. The San Francisco mint struck Seated quarters from 1855 through 1891. Seated Quarters from the Carson City mint were struck from 1870 to 1878. Being the oldest and most established U.S. Mint, the Philadelphia mint struck Seated Liberty quarters in all years. The mintmark (C.C, O and S) shows on the reverse, beneath the eagle.

From 1838 through 1852, none of the Seated Liberty quarter mintages ever reached 1 million. Then, starting in 1853 with the Arrows & Rays type, there was an explosion of production, with just over 15 million quarters pouring forth from the Philadelphia mint. In fact, from 1853 through 1862, the Philadelphia mint consistently struck millions of quarters per year—in 1862, just under a million. The branch mints of San Francisco and New Orleans, even during the major production years of 1853-62, always struck much less than the Philadelphia mint.

Collecting
Keep an eye out for two date spans of Seated Liberty quarters: 1863-72, and 1879-88. Yes, there were scarce mintages in other years, scattered here and there, but in these two date spans in particular, mintages were REALLY low! In the 1863-72 span, three dates (1863-P, 1871-P, 1872-P) have mintages in the 100,000 range, but the other dates in that time span have mintages at well under 100,000. Quarter production was even leaner in the 1879-88 time span: the average mintage of any 1879-87 (and they are all Philadelphia issues) is just around 12,000! The 1888-P is also very scarce with just 10,833, but there is also a much healthier 1888 San Francisco mintage of a little over 1 million.

The Carson City quarters are popular with collectors. In fact, the Seated Liberty quarter is the only twenty-five cent coin EVER struck at the Carson City mint! The 1870-73 CC dates are all rare (no 1874-CC quarter was struck), but the 1875-78 Carson City quarters were struck in fairly high numbers, especially the 1876 and 1877 dates. The 1876-CC and 1877-CC quarter retails just $25 in Good and $40 in Fine. That’s a great price for a classic U.S. silver coin from a popular and long-defunct mint!

The early Seated Liberty quarter dates of the 1830’s to 1840’s are all amazingly affordable, despite the fact that nearly all of them had mintages of less than 500,000! But since so few collectors try to complete full date sets of Seated Liberty quarters (too many dates, too many high-priced rarities!) there is not a lot of demand pressure put on dates. Most collectors just want a Seated Liberty quarter for their U.S. type coin collection, so they buy just one, or maybe one Seated quarter for each of the eight design phases. That means you can get early dates like the 1838 quarter for $26 in Good, $46 in Fine. An 1844-P, with a mintage of just over 421,000, can be purchased for just $20 in Good, $32 in Fine! Those are pre-Gold Rush dates, folks!

The four big rarities in the Seated Liberty quarter series are all Carson City issues. The 1870-CC retails at $4,000 in Good; the 1871-CC retails at $$3,000 in Good; the 1873-CC with Arrows retails $2,250 in Good. But the Grand-daddy of the entire series is the 1873-CC NO ARROWS type, of which there are only 6 known, and of which a circulated example would probably hammer down at $50,000-$75,000 at auction!

Grading
When it comes to condition, there are lots of very worn Seated quarters floating around the market today. BUT… there also seem to be a healthy number of high-grade ones as well. This is one U.S. coin series where all grade types seem to be well-represented on the coin market. But beware—problem-free Seated quarters in Fine or better condition, especially those dated 1850 or earlier, are scooped up very fast!

A nicer-grade Seated Liberty quarter should have the following characteristics: the obverse shield should have the stars and bars fairly well-defined and at least MOST of “LIBERTY” readable on the shield. You want to see at least half of the drapery lines on Miss Liberty. Especially note the head—is the facial detail mostly intact? If so, that’s a sign of a high-grade coin. A REALLY high-grade Seated quarter will have hair detail still intact, as the hair is usually the first feature to wear off! On the reverse, you want a well-defined shield (as on the obverse) and at least 50-60% of the eagle feather detail visible. A Seated quarter that just grades Good, simply has the full, shadowy outline of Miss Liberty on the obverse and the eagle on the obverse (which date and legends readable as well).

Mints

 * Philadelphia Mint (no mintmark)
 * San Francisco Mint (S mintmark)
 * New Orleans Mint (O mintmark)
 * Carson City Mint (CC mintmark)