liberty seated Quarter | 1877

1651.631.5

This much-handled “Seated Liberty” quarter was lost and found on the Bacon Free Library building grounds. When minted in 1877, the quarter was worth about $5.50 in today’s money. 

The Liberty Seated Quarter was designed by Robert Ball Hughes and Christian Gobrecht. They were minted from 1838 to 1891. The Liberty Seated design became one of the longest-running motifs in the United States coinage.

Until 1891, U.S. quarters were 90% silver, 10% copper, because of this people would then trim silver from the coin and use it to make new silver coins. The ridges (or “reeding”) around the quarter’s edge were used as a security measure to discourage people from trimming silver from the coin - if the reeding was visible, then the coin was good. Nowadays, the reeding is entirely decorative.