Lack of Hair on Seated Halves

tjkillian

I was just looking at my Seated Liberty Coins and notice that every denomination has hair on Miss Liberty's right shoulder (left side to the observer) except the half dollar. Here are some pictures. Can anyone explain this?

Tom

NumisEd

Wow, forget about the hair, those are some nice coins. Yummy!

MadMonk

I dunno, anybody have a Breen Book?

Baley

hmmm, interesting. my dimes, quarters, and dollars have the hair. halves don't.
most of the half dimes have it, but an 1838 half dime of the no drapery type also has no hair on shoulder:

tjkillian

Wow, no one knows this? I cannot be I've discovered this. I did notice, however, that my 1838 Half dime does not have the hair either.

Tom

lclugza

I misunderstood the question; I thought she had hairy armpits or something! Now I see you are talking about the long hair on Liberty's right shoulder.

But seriously, it may have something to do with the fact that after Gobrecht designed the Seated silver coins, there were complaints that the coins did bot stack well. So all the coins were redesigned by an assistant engraver named Robert Ball Hughes. However, the only changes made to the half dollar were minor ones: the drapery at elbow and the decrease in the size of the rock; most of the original Gobrecht design was kept on the half. The denominations other than the half dollar seem to have been completely redrawn by Mr. Hughes, and I believe Hughes put the hair on the right shoulder as it was not a part of Gobrecht's original designs. Notice how the half dollar resembles the original Gobrecht dollar more than the later dollars do. I don't think there is any hair on the right shoulder on the original Gobrecht dollar.

lathmach

Couple beautiful Seated Halves there Tom.
The obverse designs for the seated coins have differences as you note.

Ray

tjkillian

Thanks Lathmach. I like to call the first one a quarter though

Does anyone have a variety list of all the different looks of Miss Liberty on the Seated coinage? It seems that there are a lot of differences.

Tom

Rittenhouse

lclugza gets a big bingo! The Seated series was redesigned in late 39 - 40. The American minaturist Robert Ball Hughes (whose fame vastly exceeded his talent) was contracted to do the half dime, dime, quarter, and dollar. The redesign was done due to Gobrecht's rendering of Liberty with the exposed elbow, diaphenous gown, etc. offending the prudish Victorian sensibilites.

Since dollars were not stuck in great quantity and did not circulate well, Gobrecht did the half dollar himself, saving the largest coin the public was most likely to see from the insult inflicted by Hughes.

I guess the above reveals my personal opinion of both Hughes & the Victorians .