Liberty Head Quarter Eagles 1840-1907

Christian Gobrecht's Liberty Head, often called the Coronet Head, came to the gold coins one denomination at a time: the $10 eagle in 1838, the half eagle in 1839 and the quarter eagle in 1840. On the $2.50 piece it replaced William Kneass's Classic Head.

The groundwork was laid in 1834. Gold had become worth more than the face value of the coins, which were being hoarded or melted rather than spent. The Coinage Act of June 28, 1834, in force from August 1, lightened the quarter eagle from 67.5 to 64.5 grains, about 4.18 grams, and lowered its fineness from .9167 to .8992. In 1837 the standard was rounded to 90% gold, and the Liberty Head coins were struck at that weight and fineness for their whole run.

Congress had also opened branch mints in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dahlonega, Georgia, to coin gold from the Southern mines where it was dug, and a third branch in New Orleans. All three made Liberty Head quarter eagles from 1840: New Orleans until 1857, Dahlonega until 1859 and Charlotte until 1860. San Francisco began in 1854, the year it opened, but put most of that year's gold into eagles and double eagles and struck only 246 quarter eagles. It went on making them until 1879. The quarter eagle was never struck at Carson City, and the Denver Mint, which opened in 1906, did not strike this design.

The California Gold Rush left its own mark on the series. In 1848 California's military governor, Colonel R. B. Mason, sent a shipment of the new gold to Secretary of War William L. Marcy; Q. David Bowers puts it at 228 ounces. In a December 8 letter to Mint Director Robert M. Patterson, Marcy suggested that it be coined into quarter eagles carrying a mark that set them apart. The Mint punched CAL. into the reverse above the eagle, apparently while each coin still sat in the die, and about 1,389 were made. Some collectors count them as the first American commemorative coins.

The Civil War closed the Charlotte and Dahlonega mints in 1861 and drove gold out of circulation. Philadelphia's quarter eagle output fell from more than 1.2 million in 1861 to 98,508 in 1862, and in 1863 it struck only 30 proofs. Philadelphia's mintages stayed small through much of the 1870s and 1880s, down to 400 coins in 1875 and 640 in 1881. CoinWeek notes that some of these low-mintage 1880s dates are easier to find than their figures suggest, because many came back from hoards in Europe. The design ended in 1907. In 1908 Bela Lyon Pratt's Indian Head quarter eagle, with its design sunk into the surface, took its place.

Obverse. Liberty faces left. A coronet inscribed LIBERTY sits on her head, and her hair is gathered behind in a bun tied with beads, a couple of loose strands falling down the neck. Thirteen six-pointed stars run around the border, with the date below.

Reverse. An eagle with spread wings has a shield on its breast and holds an olive branch and three arrows; only two of the arrows show their feathers. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA runs around the top, split by the wing tips, and the value 2 1/2 D. sits at the bottom. Unlike the half eagle, the quarter eagle never received IN GOD WE TRUST.

Mint mark. On the reverse, under the eagle and just above 2 1/2 D. You will find C, D, O or S. Philadelphia coins have none. On this series D always means Dahlonega.

Things that cause confusion.

• Classic Head or Liberty Head. The 1834-1839 Classic Head shows Liberty with loose curls and a ribbon reading LIBERTY, and its branch-mint coins have the mint mark on the obverse above the date. A coronet and a reverse mint mark mean Liberty Head.
• Old Reverse and New Reverse, 1859-1861. Philadelphia used the original reverse hub from 1840 until 1861, with large arrowheads and closed talons. A new reverse was introduced in 1859, and coins of 1859, 1860 and 1861 come with either one. Walter Breen counted 24,158 of the 39,364 Philadelphia coins of 1859 as Old Reverse.
• 1843 date sizes. Charlotte and New Orleans struck a Small Date with a crosslet 4 and a Large Date with a plain 4. Every 1843-D has the small date, but its reverse comes with a small or a large D.
• 1873 Closed 3 and Open 3. Philadelphia's 1873 coins come with two styles of 3 in the date. NGC records 55,200 Closed 3 coins out of 178,000 Philadelphia quarter eagles that year.
• Indian Head. From 1908 the quarter eagle's design is sunk below the surface instead of raised, with an Indian in a feathered headdress on the obverse.

• 1848 CAL.: about 1,389 struck from the California shipment, each stamped CAL. above the eagle. The plain 1848 without the stamp had 7,497 struck by the figure in NGC's notes.
• 1854-S: 246 struck in San Francisco's first year. NGC believes about a dozen survive.
• 1841: no mintage is recorded, and all known coins were long called proofs. In 2012 PCGS began recognizing some as circulation strikes, with a census of four proofs and 12 or 13 business strikes, while experts on both sides disagreed. NGC lists the date only as a proof.
• 1863 proof: no business strikes, and 30 proofs. Garrett and Guth estimate 15 to 20 survive.
• 1875: 400 business strikes. David Akers estimated 15 to 20 were left.
• 1881 (640, plus 51 proofs) and 1885 (800): two of the small Philadelphia mintages of the 1880s.
• Civil War Philadelphia: 1864 (2,824) and 1865 (1,520).
• Late Southern issues: the 1856-D (874 struck), 1855-D (1,123) and 1854-D (1,760); the 1860-C, Charlotte's last quarter eagle (7,469); and the 1857-O, the last from New Orleans (34,000).
• 1840: 18,859 struck at Philadelphia in the design's first year.

The varieties collectors look for are mostly date and die changes. In 1843 Charlotte struck a Small Date and a Large Date, and New Orleans did the same (Small Date, Large Date). The 1843-D comes with a small D or a large D. There is a repunched D on the 1846-D and an 1862 2 over 1 overdate. Philadelphia coins of 1859 come with the Old Reverse or the New Reverse, as do those of 1860 and 1861. The 1873 date comes as the Closed 3 and the Open 3.

• Composition: 90% gold, 10% copper
• Weight: 4.18 grams
• Gold content: 0.1209 troy ounce
• Diameter: 18 mm
• Edge: reeded
• Designer: Christian Gobrecht

The weight and fineness date from the Coinage Act of 1834 and the 1837 change to 90% gold, and they stayed the same until the quarter eagle ended in 1929. Before 1859 proofs were made in tiny numbers, estimated at 20 or fewer a year.