liberty seated Quarter | 1877

1651.631.5

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

Robert Ball Hughes and Christian Gobrecht designed the Liberty Seated Quarter. 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 and 10% copper. Because of this, people would 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.