Liberty Seated Quarter (1838-1891)

For its first fifteen years the Seated Liberty Quarter Dollar competed in circulation with the Spanish two-reales piece, or two bits. It was not until the mass recoining of 1853 that enough USA quarter dollars were minted to supplant the foreign coins almost entirely. Mintage figures declined drastically during the Civil War years, since silver coins circulated only in the Far West from 1862 through the mid-1870s. An overabundance of fractional silver coins during the years 1878-90 led to very small annual mintages, these coins being produced solely to discourage speculation in what would otherwise have been proof-only dates. This series has never been especially popular with collectors, though it has experienced more interest since the formation of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club in 1974. Collecting Seated Liberty Quarter Dollars by date and mint is a very daunting task, as there are many key and semi-key rarities. These include the low-mintage issues of the 1860s and early 1870s, the Carson City Mint pieces being especially rare. Only a handful of numismatists seek Seated Liberty Quarters by varieties, but this area of interest is growing along with the overall greater focus on variety collecting. NGC will attribute Seated Liberty Quarter Dollar varieties included in VarietyPlus. Some desirable varieties include doubled dies for 1841-O and 1847, 1854-O with Huge O and repunched mintmarks for 1856-S and 1877-S.