Liberty Seated Quarter Dollars An Underrated Series and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Liberty Seated Quarter Dollars An Underrated Series and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Nov 21, 2022 346 likes •683 views

Liberty Seated Quarter Dollars An Underrated Series and Denomination Gerry Fortin LSCC President 1850 PR 25c (Pittman) PCGS PR67 Gerry Fortin Rare Coins Topics An Underrated Series Why Collect Seated Quarters? Design Evolution

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Liberty Seated Quarter Dollars

An Underrated Series and Denomination

Gerry Fortin

LSCC President Gerry Fortin Rare Coins

1850 PR 25c (Pittman) PCGS PR67

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Topics

  • An Underrated Series
  • Why Collect Seated Quarters?
  • Design Evolution and Major Subtypes
  • Availability in Choice Original Preservation State
  • The Unavailable Stopper Dates
  • Striking Characteristics
  • Typical Costs
  • Die Varieties References
  • Closing Summary

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

An Underrated Series

  • ~114 coins in Guide book set and 64 pieces in Date set

– 7 major design sub-types – Typical collecting objective is dates and mintmarks; some

will add major varieties

– Struck at Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco and

Carson City mints at various times.

  • Date rarities throughout the series

– 25% of date mintages (all mints) less than 50,000! – 41% of date mintages under 100,000! – 54% of date mintages under 250,000 – 20% of date have mintage over 1,000,000

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Why Collect Seated Quarters?

  • Physical size (between dime & dollar) is sweet spot for

tradeoff between size / price

– Seated halves and dollars generally more expensive – Seated half dimes and dimes less visually appealing

  • Series lacks a comprehensive die variety reference

– Briggs Encyclopedia published during early 1990s – LSCC Gobrecht Journal and E-Gobrecht variety research – An opportunity for the die variety specialist

  • Knowledge and experience are rewarded as a

complicated series that many dealers don’t appreciate

  • r understand.

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Examples of Low Mintage Dates

  • Low mintage examples:

– Carson City: 1870 (8,340), 1871 (10,890), 1873 (12,462) – San Francisco: 1860 (56,000), 1871 (30,900), 1872 (83,000) – New Orleans: 1849 (16,000), 1851 (88,000), 1852 (96,000) – Philadelphia: 1866 (16,800), 1886 (5,000), 1887 (10,000)

  • Mintage not necessarily indicative of rarity or availability

– 1879-1889 Philadelphia dates all under 15,000 but more

available in mint state than circulated grades

– 1841 (120,000), 1842 (88,000) and 1851 (160,000)

Philadelphia dates scarce in all grades and rare in AU or better

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Liberty Seated Quarters (1838 – 1891)

Liberty Seated Design Evolution

No Drapery With Drapery Type I With Drapery Type II

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types

No Motto, No Drapery (1838-1840)

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types and Availability Choice Original Condition

No Motto, No Drapery (1838-1840) Certified Acceptance Corp. Population Report CAC Population Report are an excellent proxy for available coins in choice condition

Reading is easy; focus on Totals column and then the distributions in Circulated grades and Mint State For No Drapery Design, the 1839 is the better date overall but 1840- O is difficult in mint state

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types

With Drapery, No Motto (1838-1853)

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types and Availability Choice Original Condition

With Drapery, No Motto (1838-1853) Certified Acceptance Corp. Population Report

Early With Drapery dates that are challenging in choice condition.

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types

With Arrows & Rays (1853)

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types

With Arrows (1854-1855)

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types

No Motto resumed (1856-1865)

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types and Availability Choice Original Condition

No Motto resumed (1856-1865) Certified Acceptance Corp. Population Report Civil War Period

Choice San Francisco mint state quarters are extremely rare! 10 examples known and most are dated 1862-S!

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types

With Motto (1866-1891)

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types

With Arrows (1873-1874)

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types and Availability Choice Original Condition

With Motto (1866-1891) Certified Acceptance Corp. Population Report Reconstruction Period

Choice San Francisco mint state quarters are extremely rare! 10 examples known and most are dated 1862-S!

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Major Design Sub-types and Availability Choice Original Condition

Type 2 Buffalo Nickels as a Reference Certified Acceptance Corp. Population Report

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Plenty to Collect

  • Six major types
  • About 10 major varieties, some very interesting,

generally date & mintmark anomalies

  • 1000+ (??) die marriages
  • Oddball: Cuds, die cracks, clashed dies, rotated dies,

counterstamps, shipwrecked pieces, love tokens, contemporary counterfeits, planchet laminations, etc.

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Difficult Dates and Stoppers

Stoppers:

  • 1870-CC (about 75 known)
  • 1871-CC (about 75 known)
  • 1873-CC (about 75 known)

The BIG Stoppers:

  • 1873-CC NA (5 known)
  • 1842 Small Date proof
  • 1866 No Motto (Unique)
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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Common vs. uncommon dates

Philadelphia – most dates trade as “common”, better dates usually available at a price. Mid-1860s and 1880s dates struck in low quantities. There are no “sexy” issues in the Philadelphia series except the 1853 No Arrows and 1873 Closed 3. Carson City – 1870-CC to 1873-CC quite difficult, 1875-CC to 1878-CC considerably easier. San Francisco – 1858-S to 1861-S are condition rarities,1864-S is key date while 1871-S and 1872-S struck in low quantity. New Orleans – 1849-O, 1851-O, 1852-O are the keys. 1891-O also difficult. Several important varieties.

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Carson City issues

  • Considerably controversy in ranking the 1870-CC,

1871-CC, 1873-CC

  • 1870-CC has traditionally been priced higher, likely
  • wing to the mintage figures:

– 1870-CC

8,340 PCGS pop: 56

– 1871-CC

10,890 PCGS pop: 42

– 1873-CC

12,462 PCGS pop: 52

  • Personal experience ranks the 1871-CC as the most

difficult in terms of market availability

  • Choice examples of any are few and far between

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

1873-CC No Arrows

  • Only 5 known
  • 3 of these are Mint State

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

1866 No Motto Fantasy Piece

  • One quarter dollar was clandestinely struck with the

1866 obverse and the No Motto reverse

– Never authorized, not a regular issue – Similar to 1913 Liberty Nickel

  • One No Motto half and two dollars also made
  • 3-coin set stolen from

DuPont collection in 1967

  • Recovered between

1999 and 2003

  • Guide Book listed

Photos courtesy ANR

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Striking Characteristics and Issues

  • Strike quality is an ongoing issue for Seated quarters
  • 1838, 1839 and 1840-O No Drapery quarters have

weak head and upper star details as a rule.

  • 1847-O, 1850-O and 1852-O are notorious for weak
  • bverse strikes.
  • 1866 and 1867 circulation strikes have weak LIBERTY

in shield

  • In general, the quality of the Philadelphia pieces is

higher than the branch mints

  • Briggs is the best guide to striking characteristics of

each issue

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Liberty Seated Quarters - Striking Issues

Striking Issues

No Drapery - Bold No Drapery - Typical With Drapery Type I - Bold With Drapery Type I - Typical

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Liberty Seated Quarters – Striking Issues

Striking Issues

With Drapery Type II - Bold With Drapery Type II - Typical

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Collecting Liberty Seated Quarters

  • Most U.S. collectors attempt this series by type

– No Drapery/Drapery, No Arrows / With Arrows, No Motto /

With Motto

  • Mintmark collection: P, O, S, CC
  • 64 piece date set, 1838 – 1891
  • Date / mintmark set

– Most popular approach among LSCC members – 106 coin set

  • Varieties

– Some focus on varieties of specific dates – Date and mintmark sets challenging enough without

adding varieties

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Typical Cost Required

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Collection G-F F-XF XF-AU MS63

Common date $50 $100 $150 $750 Complete year set only $15,000 $30,000 $60,000

  • Date and Mintmark set

(excluding mega- rarities) $100,000 $225,000 $350,000 $2,500,000

  • Majority of cost of complete set will be in ~10 coins
  • First focus in set appraisal will be early Carson City
  • This is a long-term (5-10 year) endeavor!
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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

References

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  • Larry Briggs’ Seated Quarter Encyclopedia
  • Gobrecht Journal back issues
  • https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/

2096

  • Useful for in-depth analysis of particular dates
  • Auction catalogs
  • Eliasberg, Briggs, Richmond (S-mint essay),

Gardner

  • Eliasberg in particular consolidated Gobrecht

Journal content

  • Top 25 Die Varieties listed at

www.SeatedDimeVarieties.com

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Liberty Seated Collectors Club

Summary of Liberty Seated Quarters

  • A long series requiring 5+ years to assemble a set
  • Go slow and acquire knowledge first before buying key

dates

  • Find an LSCC mentor to help answer questions
  • Price guides are inaccurate in some cases; use

CoinFacts auction records

  • Do not confuse rarity and availability
  • Choice coins are few; study CAC population reports
  • Open Set Registry on GerryFortinRareCoins.com

website

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www.LSCCweb.org

Thank you!

Any questions?