The Early Quarter Dollars of the United States

Quarter Dollars of 1796

The first year coinage. Total number of pieces coined 6,146. The type of the first quarter dollar is the same as the second type of the silver dollar of 1795.

Obverse: A full bust of Liberty, adorned with drapery facing right. Above, the word LIBERTY, below, 1796. To left of the bust are eight stars, and to the right seven, fifteen in all.

Reverse: An eagle with expanded wings, standing upon clouds, between branches of laurel and lily, crossed. Legen: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Without mention of value.

Two varieties are known.

The branches are olive and palm, as a compliment to Mint Director Henry William DeSaussure, in whose term of office the draped hair design was introduced. By 1796 the design was already an anachronism.

No.1

Obverse: Date not equally spaced , 7 and 9 too close, 6 is low, about twice as far below bust as in No. 2. In LIBERTY, T and Y touch at top. Lower right star almost touches drapery.

Reverse: Seven berries on laurel branch, one leaf of laurel touches D in UNITED. The lily touches A, R and A in AMERICA.

Obverse die perfect; reverse perfect in early impressions, later pieces show a weakness at the eagle's head. Specimen coins or Proofs, were apparently struck from this reverse with both obverses, but sharp, perfect impressions of the reverse are found only in this variety, which is very rare.

Date spaced 1 788, the 6 low our 1 point under center of B.

B-1; C-2; D-1; E-3881; H-2; Hilt 2.

Rarity-6

Dies by Robert Scot and John Smith Gardner, after designs by Gilbert Stuart and John Eckstein. Stuart finished a drawing (now lost) portraying Philadelphia socialite Mrs. William Bingham (nee Ann Willing), in Newport, RI, about August 1795 this was intended for the new dollars to be coined in October 1795. (AJN21:95 [April 1887]). "The head of Liberty, on the dollar of 1795, was designed by BM the celebrated portrait painter, at the request of the Director [Henry William DeBaueeure], as we learn from a relation of the family, Stuart facetiously remarking that ‘Liberty on the other coins have run mad'- referring to the disheveled hair on the head of Liberty on the previous coins-‘ we will bind it up, and thus render her a steady matron'," (J.R. Snowden, Washington and National medals, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1861, p. 177; quotation marks supplied for clarity.)

The dies must have been completed before Gardner left the Mint, April 1, 1796. Hilt guesses that about 25 survive, = 1.32% of the original mintage, which he estimates at 1,900 and derives from the June 12, 1804 delivery (p.106)- a conclusion unsupported by his statistics. He also estimates that 7.0% of the survivors should be Uncirculated, i.e. about two specimens (p.108); as the following list shows, there are more than that!

1. Mills (1904):981
2. Stickney: 1116 ($35), John H. Clapp, Louis Eliasberg Estate. Prooflike presentation piece, eagle's head bold.
3. Myron Kliman. Similar, rainbow toned. Ill. in Encyclopedia. Earlier source unknown.
4. Allenburger: 387. Similar.
5. Leo A. Young, Auction '80:1580. Similar.
6. R.T. Davis: 72. Similar.
7. 1984 Greater N.Y. Sale.
8. NN 57:588, 1968 ANA:1876. Uncirculated, much of eagle weak.
9. Kreisberg/Cohen 9/10-12/73:656, Julian Leidman. AU, edge planchet defect at 1:30.
10. British dealer, 1967 ANA:1406: AU, sharp, spotty: eagle's head bold.
11. Rothert:786. AU, sharp, eagle's head bold.
12. ANS
13. Brown Library: 191 (Pine Tree, 5/76). EF plus.
14. Col. Green, F.C.C. Boyd, WGC: 1, S.W. Freeman: 1544. EF, prooflike. Plate I.
15. James A. Stack Estate:1. EF.
16. Herbert M. Bergen:1. EF, Contact marks.
17. 1975 ANA:350. EF, nicked up (differently from 16), parts of right obverse border weak.

There are at least eight others in lower grades, from VF down to Fair. Possibly some of the prooflike Uncirculateds were in the Col. Green hoard (see 1796 No. 2), but if so they must have come his way after the Browning book's publication.

Numerical Condition Census (RWM, Sr. [circa 1992]): 62PL, 60PL, 60, 60, 55+, 55PL (4).