Capped Bust Quarter

The Capped Bust Quarter of 1815-38 is our nation’s second twenty-five cent coin type. It’s also the third of fourth Capped Bust silver coin, as there were also Capped Bust half dollars, dimes and half dimes, all of which shared an identical obverse and reverse design.

Specifications

 * Designer: John Reich
 * Obverse Design:
 * Reverse Design: Large size Capped Bust quarters have “E Pluribus Unum” in a banner above the eagle, small size do not.
 * Edge: Reeded
 * Weight: ±6.74 grams
 * Diameter: ±29 millimeters
 * Composition:   Silver (89%), Copper (11%)
 * Dates Minted: 1815-1838

Background
The Capped Bust silver coinage was designed by Mint Engraver, John Reich. Unlike, say, the Flowing Hair silver coins, the Draped Bust silver coins and the Barber type silver coins, the Capped Bust silver coinage didn’t all begin at roughly the same time. The Capped Bust half dollar was introduced in 1807, the Capped Bust dime in 1809; the Capped Bust quarter in 1815; and the Capped Bust half dime not until 1829! The Capped Bust half dollar began the earliest because there was more demand for a large silver coin from the U.S. Mint’s silver investors. The smaller denominations—the quarter, dime and half dime—were struck later and in small numbers, largely due to an influx of Spanish-Colonial half-reales, one-reale and two-reales coins into the United States. From 1808 through 1814, there was simply little demand for U.S. small denomination silver coins, and that included the quarter!

In 1838, some 832,000 Capped Bust quarters were struck, but in that same year, a new U.S. quarter type was introduced: the Seated Liberty quarter. Today, it’s worth it to seek out this early U.S. quarter of the Andrew Jackson Era, that was the only U.S. quarter to be struck in two sizes!

History
When the Capped Bust quarter made its debut in 1815, it had been eight years since the last U.S quarter, the Draped Bust type, had been struck. So after an eight-year absence, the quarter re-emerged with… a whimper. Only 89,235 Capped Bust quarters were struck in that first year of 1815. That’s not even half the production of the 1806 and 1807 quarter mintages! Much of the 1815 mintage went to the Planter’s Bank of New Orleans, one of the banks that had ordered quarters.

A fire at the U.S. Mint in January of 1816 destroyed much of the minting equipment used to strike silver coins. Consequently, no quarters were struck in 1816 and 1817. But once new minting equipment was put in place, quarter production resumed in 1818. This time there was a pretty healthy mintage of 361,174 quarters. But starting with 1819’s mintage of 144,000 quarters, the quarter production would remain low for the next ten years, never rising above 217,000 pieces for any year during that period.

Collecting
When discussing Capped Bust quarters, collectors generally divide them into two parts: the large size and the small size. The large size Capped Bust quarters were struck from 1815 to 1828. These quarters were 27 mm. in diameter, the same size as the currently circulating Spanish-Colonial 2 reales. The small size Capped Bust quarters were introduced in 1831 and continued to be struck through 1838, the last year of the Capped Bust quarter series. The small size Capped Bust quarters were 24.3 mm. Incidentally, these two types are also distinguished by reverse designs: the large size Capped Bust quarters have “E Pluribus Unum” in a banner above the eagle. The small size issues of 1831-38 do not have the “E Pluribus Unum” banner.

The small size Capped Bust quarter set the size standard for all U.S. quarters up to the present time. When the small size Capped Bust quarter was introduced in 1831, it’s mintage of 398,000 pieces also began a new era of consistently healthy-sized mintages for U.S. quarters. Though mintage numbers for Capped Bust quarters of any date are small compared to modern quarter mintages, they were relatively large for the time. In 1835, production of the Capped Bust quarter hit a peak with 1.9 million pieces struck, the only date where more than 1 million Capped Bust quarters were struck.

Despite the fact that every Capped Bust quarter is scarce – many were lost over the years due to attrition, excessive wear and melting—no one date is particularly rare. Which is why this series can be collected by date without any one date serving as a “stopper.” There is one particularly rare overdate though: the 1823/22 retails around $14,000 in Good.

Any large size Capped Bust quarter date, barring rare overdate types, will retail $80-$90 in Good, $150-$175 in Fine. The more common small size Capped Bust quarters of 1831-38 will retail $65-$70 in Good, $93-$100 in Fine. As a type, the Capped Bust quarter is the scarcest and hardest to find of any of the Capped Bust silver coins.

Grading
Many Capped Bust quarters you’ll find today come with excessive wear and damage. These quarters circulated well in the marketplace, and were generally not put away and saved in mint condition. If you find one with full legends, clear date, even wear and even grey-toned surfaces, you have a truly desirable coin, even if in average circulated condition. A bust quarter with facial and hair curl detail is unusually good. A reverse eagle with some feather detail and a readable “E Pluribus Unum” in the banner (1815-28 types) is a better than average piece.

Mints

 * Philadelphia Mint (no mintmark)