I would think that more quarters would have been needed. They made the half dollars in the millions. I figured the smaller change would have been more important at the time.
Bust Halves were needed by the banking sector. There were no silver dollars or gold eagles minted after 1803. $2.50 and $5 had low mintages during the 1804-1838 period, so the largest "coin of the realm" readily available to banks was the bust half. It isn't so much that the quarter production was low as it was half production was high
Quarters were not in as much demand as half dimes and dimes, as a dime had a lot of purchasing power 200 years ago. As already stated, halves were needed for large monetary transactions at the time.
Remember also, the vast majority of circulating silver in the US during this period was from foreign mints (mostly from Mexico). Taking only US minted coins into account gives you an incomplete picture.
Very interesting. I've been wondering why draped bust quarters demand such premiums, even in lower grades. I was told by some dealers at the Whitman show in Baltimore that the lower grades overall were due to them being heavily used in commerce. But I doubt that after reading what has been written here. Thanks.
You have not been entirely misled. The quarters that were minted circulated into the 1860's, when the price of silver jumped to where the bullion content outweighed the legal tender value, thus heavy wear from circulating many decades.
Bust half dimes, dimes, and quarters did circulate heavily. As is written above, bust halves largely did not. Think of them as the Sacagaweas of their era.
Also, pulling coins from circulation really did not begin to take hold until the mid 1850's, since very few collectors were active. Most people did not have disposable income to save coins. They needed every cent to live as quality of life as possible.
I think a good analogy to today's currency would be the $50 dollar bill. It's readily available but people carry and use more $100 and $20 bills than $50's.
Intelligent, informative, well written replies by all contributors. Reading these entries is like going to school without paying tuition.
Get used to it ;-) This site is a veritable treasure chest of knowledge. (Oh, enough brown-nosing... back to the show)
Until 1856 all foreign coins circulated as legal tender in the United States. The old trope two bits - four bits - six bits - a dollar referred to the practice of cutting Mexican and Spanish 8 real coins into bits. A 1/8 bit was equal to 12 1/2 cents. With all of those fractional bits in circulation there was less need for American quarters. During the redemption period circa 1855 - 1856 larger numbers of quarters were needed to replace the foreign coins and bits. Whether my knowledge matches the exact process I'm reasonably sure that what I said was the general story.
Maybe more to it than that. The mint tried to put into circulation coins that were needed. The country was still well supplied with two real pieces from Latin American countries in the early to mid 19th Century, so too with the eight Reales pillar dollars. They were a commonly produced and circulated coin. Plenty of them out their and no need to mint equivalents. Strangely enough the Spanish 4 Reales coin was an uncommon coin in Latin America and therefore, so too, in the US. Those readers with a Kraus book can see the mint production figures of the four Reales coin and they are low and they command more of a premium than the larger, but more common, pieces of eight by collectors. In the early 1800's the US had no need for more silver dollar or quarter dollar Spanish equivalents but there was a need for the 4 Reales, 50 cent equivalent, hence the high volume mintages.
They may have all circulated, but they were NOT legal tender. The law actually severely limited which foreign coins were legal tender and there are significant periods between the start of the mint and 1856 when NO foreign coins were legal tender. The correct answer as to why the mintages of the bust quarters were low was because until 1837 the mint had no authority to purchase silver on the open market and produce whatever coins they wanted or those that were needed in the marketplace. They were dependent on whatever silver was deposited for coinage by the citizens and businesses, and it was the depositors choice as to what denominations the metal would be made into. Most of the large deposits were made by banks and large businesses and they chose the half dollar for ease in handling, counting, and speed in the return of their deposit (larger coins means less time to produce a given dollar amount of coins). And the mint would encourage the choice of large coins for the same reason, ease of production. So smaller denominations were usually only the choice of small depositors and small businesses that NEEDED the change to conduct business.
Well let's just all pack into the Wayback Machine and set the dials for the early 1800's and see what we can learn. Okay, I'm back, and here's what I learned. Nothing that we think we know about money even came close to applying in the 1800's, and what's more, vice versa too.
The Spanish coinage circulated regularly at that time. There wasn't a great need for US Quarters because the foreign coinage filled what need there was.
I have an XF45 1830 Bust Half and a VF25 1834 Bust Quarter - I paid almost the same price for each one. The half may have been only slightly more expensive, maybe by $10 or less. Anyone would have questions about this strange situation, as did I, and this forum, once again, helped me work it all out. The juxtaposition makes for a fascinating paradox, or it at least seems like a paradox at first.