Capped Bust Large Size Quarter Dollar 1815-1828 Coin Guide
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Capped Bust Large Size Quarter Dollar 1815-1828
The American political experiment spawned many liberation movements
throughout Europe, as people naturally embraced the idea of the right to
self-determination. It began with France-first with the Revolution in 1789
and again, after the fall of Napoleon, spreading to Naples, Greece,
Belgium and Poland. As the old Spanish Empire crumbled, the Latin American
Republics were also created in this spirit.
The chaos in Europe attracted many immigrants to the dynamic, energetic
and relatively peaceful United States. One of these was John Reich, a
German engraver caught up in the Napoleonic Wars. He paid his way to
America through indentured servitude and pursued his calling as an
engraver by applying for a job at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. He was
hired in 1807 and was immediately given the task of creating new coinage
designs.
Reich brought Europe to America. His obverse design shows Liberty
facing left, surrounded by thirteen stars, with the date below the bust.
Liberty is quite buxom and, though characterized in the press as looking
like "the artist's fat mistress," she is probably representative
in appearance of the typical woman that Reich would have seen in Europe.
Contrary to the opinions of some students of United States coinage, she is
not wearing a Phrygian liberty cap but simply a mob cap, with a band
inscribed LIBERTY. Many took issue with the idea that Liberty would be
adorned with a cap given to freed slaves, but even President Thomas
Jefferson saw this headdress, with its high cap bearing frills and
ribbons, as familiar wearing apparel of women during this time. The
bucolic Miss Liberty was quite different than the stern, no-nonsense look
of Robert Scot's preceding Draped Bust design.
The reverse shows an eagle with outstretched wings perched on a branch
and holding three arrows, the Union Shield on its breast and the motto E
PLURIBUS UNUM ("One made up of many") on a scroll above the
eagle. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and value 25 C appear around
the border. The eagle is more domesticated and peaceful looking than the
aggressive Heraldic Eagle of the 1804-1807 design and more robust than the
puny eagle on the 1796 quarter.
The Reich design would follow the policy established by the first
director of the Mint, David Rittenhouse, that one design would be used on
all coins of the same metal. It was first rendered on the half dollar of
1807, the dime of 1809 and finally the quarter dollar in 1815.
There were no quarters minted from 1808 to 1814, primarily because
there was little demand for them. Early quarters were victims of Gresham's
Law. This economic axiom dictates that if two competing currencies exist
side by side, the least valuable will be spent and the other will be kept.
In other words, "bad" money drives out "good." The
competing Spanish two-reales coins were legal tender at par with the
heavier quarter, so the quarter coin was either hoarded or melted for its
silver content. The Spanish coins satisfied the needs of commerce, so
there was not much need or motivation to make large mintages of United
States coins.
Quarters were only minted in 1815 because the banks had ordered them.
In fact, the majority of the mintage of 1815 went to the Planters' Bank of
New Orleans. Just over 89,000 pieces were made, including approximately
20,000 pieces delivered on January 10th of 1816. A fire at the mint the
next day destroyed much of the equipment, shutting down production of
quarters until 1818, but nobody missed the coin.
Though the design was criticized, it represented a technological
improvement over the Scot Heraldic design. There were far fewer design
elements that had to be worked in by hand, reducing the time necessary to
make a working die and increasing its useful life. The dies and therefore
the coins were more consistent, making it easier to detect counterfeits.
Relatively low mintages were the rule for this series, with production
for the eleven years totaling only 1,290,584 pieces. While VG to VF pieces
are easily obtainable, uncirculated pieces are scarce or rare. Assembling
a complete date set is precluded by the two major rarities, 1823/2 and the
proof-only 1827, but strong demand comes from type collectors. Proofs,
really presentation pieces, exist for some dates but are very rare.
The 1827 proof issues have a special significance in that they are
associated with the name Joseph J. Mickley, who is considered to be the
"Father of American Coin Collecting." On a visit to the Mint in
1827, Mickley obtained four proof quarters, which turned out to be at
least a third of the entire mintage for the date. Although Mint records
show 4,000 quarters were produced in 1827, undoubtedly they were struck
with another date, as no 1827-dated business strikes are known. After coin
collecting became popular in the United States in the 1850s, about a dozen
surreptitious restrikes were made of the coveted rarity. The restrikes
were made from the original 1827 obverse die, but the reverse used an 1819
die with a flat base 2 in 25 C. instead of the curled base 2 of the
original 1827.
There is also a mystery surrounding the Capped Bust quarter. There are
pieces, mostly dated 1815 and 1825, that have a large "E" or
"L" counterstamped above Liberty's head. They were first noticed
by collectors in the 1870's and were thought to have official origins,
possibly as some experiment, but official records show no such
counterstamped pieces. The puzzle remains unsolved, though Walter Breen
conjectured in 1982 that they could have been made for use as school
medals, using the "E" for English and "L" for Latin.
Uncirculated pieces must be free of any trace of wear at the hair above
the forehead and over the ear. In addition, check the drapery on Liberty's
bust and shoulder. On the reverse, the eagle's head and the tail feathers
below the shield are the high spots. Some examples come weak or unevenly
struck, and this should not be mistaken for wear.
The ending of the large size Capped Bust quarter series in 1828 nearly
coincides with the end of the first Philadelphia Mint. The cornerstone of
the new mint building was laid on July 4th of 1829 at Juniper and Chestnut
Streets. The anticipation of the new mint was an opportunity to refresh
the designs of the coinage. In 1831, a smaller size Capped Bust quarter
was introduced, which kept the basic Reich design but eliminated the motto
E PLURIBUS UNUM. The diameter was reduced to 24.3 millimeters, the size
the quarter would remain up through the present day.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Diameter: 27 millimeters Weight: 6.74 grams Composition: .8924 silver,
.1076 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .1934 ounce pure silver
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, U.S. Coins By Design
Types, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1986. Breen, Walter,
Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I.
Doubleday, New York, 1988. Browning, A.W., The Early Quarter Dollars of
the United States, 1796-1838, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1992.
Garraty, John, The Columbia History of the World, Harper & Row, New
York, 1972. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co.,
New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th
Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.
Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.
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