Seated Liberty Arrows Quarter Dollars 1854-1855 Coin Guide
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Seated Liberty Arrows Quarter Dollars 1854-1855
In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowing the
residents of those territories to settle the subject of slavery by popular
vote. It was widely regarded as an act of bad faith, as its passage
wrecked the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850, both
of which had been responsible for holding the Union together.
While less momentous, the previous year Congress had passed the Mint
Act of 1853, another piece of legislation regarded as an act of bad faith,
as it reduced the amount of silver in most U.S. coins by almost 7%. This
reduction was necessary in order to return silver coins to circulation.
Prior to 1853, silver coins had been melted in large numbers, as they were
worth more than their face value. Now the smaller denomination coins were
returning to circulation, but many in Congress sincerely believed that the
passage of the Mint Act cheated the American people of the full measure of
value inherent in their coinage.
By early 1854, the coin shortage had ended, and more than a million
dollars worth of silver coins were stored in the vaults of the Mint
awaiting purchasers. The new, lighter weight coins were a life-giving
force for retail trade throughout the country, and for the first time
since the founding of the Republic the nation had an ample supply of small
coins of uniform quality. 1854 saw more than twelve million quarters
struck in the Philadelphia Mint alone. But the explanation of such a large
mintage goes well beyond meeting the nation's needs for coinage at the
time and is another example of bad faith with the American people-this
time by the mal-administration of the law itself.
The Mint Act of 1853 specifically required Mint officials to purchase
silver bullion from the Mint's bullion fund and then sell the new coins to
the public in exchange for gold coins only. This would keep the fractional
silver pieces, with their limited legal tender status, from becoming an
overabundant nuisance. What Mint Director James Ross Snowden did, however,
was to pay out the new silver coins to bullion depositors in exchange for
their silver.
Even after the market price of silver bullion had fallen, the Mint
continued this illegal practice. By setting no limits on the amount of
bullion the Mint would purchase, Snowden effectively allowed the free
coinage of silver, a practice Congress wished to discontinue in 1853.
Conceived as a means of relieving the previous coin shortage, this
situation virtually guaranteed that there would soon be too many silver
coins in circulation.
Under other circumstances, this policy might not have presented any
particular problems, but the coins authorized by the Mint Act of 1853 were
only legal tender in amounts up to five dollars. As the Mint Act did not
allow for redemption of the coins. and there was no possibility of
exporting them (as there had been with the heavier, old-tenor coins),
oversupply was inevitable, and it came quickly. Soon, retail stores
refused silver coins except for small payments, and even banks declined to
accept them for deposits. Some businesses that received large amounts of
change were forced to sell their surplus to brokers at a discount.
The situation became so serious that Treasury Secretary James Guthrie
temporarily suspended the coinage of quarters and half dollars, but he
never investigated the Mint policy responsible for the oversupply. This
redundancy in the nation's silver supply lasted until 1862, when the
government finally suspended specie payments and coins once again
disappeared from circulation.
With $100.00 face value in old-tenor (pre-1853) silver coins still
selling for $106.60 in 1854, Mint Director Snowden believed that their
value was still sufficiently high enough to warrant retaining some type of
identifying mark on the new 1854 coins. Thus, the arrowheads placed on the
1853 issues remained at either side of the date. The glory of rays on the
reverse of the quarter and half dollar, however, required an extra
operation in die preparation and shortened die life considerably, so
Snowden ordered their removal.
Otherwise, this design is a continuation of the motifs originally
engraved by Christian Gobrecht in the late 1830s, with the obverse
depicting Liberty seated on a rock, surrounded by thirteen stars, and a
spread-winged eagle encircled by the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
and QUAR. DOL. on the reverse.
1854 and 1855 saw Arrows quarters struck at three mints: Philadelphia
(no mintmark), New Orleans (O) and San Francisco (S). Mintmarks are
located on the reverse, just below the eagle. Five issues are represented
in the total mintage of 17,293,400 pieces, of which the vast majority were
produced at Philadelphia in 1854. New Orleans produced over 1.5 million
coins in 1854, including the scarce, so-called Huge O mintmark variety,
but minted only 176,000 pieces in 1855. This issue is the rarest in the
series, particularly in high grade, along with the San Francisco issue of
1855, the only year that the western branch mint produced this design.
In general, Arrows quarters are collected as type pieces. 1854 is
usually the date of choice, as it is available with the most regularity.
When collected by date and mint, the other four issues are usually
considered a part of the much larger No Motto series.
Counterfeits are generally not a problem with this type. Proofs are
very rare, and deceptively prooflike business strikes that resemble proofs
are more likely to be encountered than counterfeits. At most, a few dozen
proofs are known from each year, including a unique branch-mint proof
struck in San Francisco in 1855 that traces its pedigree to then-Mint
Superintendent Robert Aiken Birdsall.
The grading of these coins is similar to that for all coins of the
Seated Liberty type. The points to first show wear on the obverse are
Liberty's knee, breast and hair; on the reverse, check the neck, claws and
tops of the wings.
After 1855, so few old-tenor silver coins remained in circulation that
Director Snowden dropped the arrows from subsequent dates, even though the
weight remained the same. The device of arrowheads at either side of the
date was resurrected again in 1873 to designate another weight change, but
this time a slight increase.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Diameter: 24.3 millimeters Weight: 6.22 grams Composition: .900 silver,
.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .1800 ounce pure silver
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bailey, Thomas A., The American Pageant,
D.C. Heath and Company, Boston, MA, 1966. Bowers, Q. David, United States
Dimes, Quarters and Half Dollars, Bowers and Melena Galleries, Wolfeboro,
NH, 1986. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and
Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Briggs, Larry, The
Comprehensive Encyclopedia of United States Liberty Seated Quarters, Larry
Briggs Rare Coins, Lima, OH, 1991. Carothers, Neil, Fractional Money, A
History of Small Coins and Fractional Paper Currency of the United States,
John Wiley & Sons, London, 1930. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and
Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966.
Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.
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