Liberty Seated folks - a question

Monstavet

In 1873-4 the weight of the dimes and quarters (not sure about halves) was increased slightly, and arrows were placed on the obverse to mark the increased weight. In 1875, the arrows were removed again...did the weight of the coins go back down, or did they just start using the old design again? Haven't found an answer to that one...thanks in advance! I suppose I could weight some coins and find out...just need a sensitive gram scale.

sadysta1

They figure out that two years should be sufficuent for the people to get use to the new standard and they dropped them

coinguy1

Monstavet,

In answer to your question - the weights did not go back down in 1875 when the old design was resumed.

Trime

If you want to know the lowdown on these and other fascinating aspects of silver value and its impact on coins in the 1800s, you must read the two classic articles by Lawrence Rogak in the Gobrecht Journal Volume 3. These articles were awarded the Ahwash Awards for 1989 and 1990. In fact these articles are in my mind so important that I don't believe you can be a collector of 19th century silver coins without knowing this material.
How do you get it?
If you are a member of the ANA-From the library.
If a member of the LSCC (Liberty Seated Collectors club)- You can buy it from them.
It probably bis for sale by Numismatic Book dealers or on E-Bay.
If none of these suit you - I could xerox the articles but it might take a few weeks since I am going out of town tomorrow. Pm me if you wish.