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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 2935540, member: 66&quot;]They may have all circulated, but they were NOT legal tender.&nbsp; 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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).&nbsp; And the mint would encourage the choice of large coins for the same reason, ease of production.&nbsp; So smaller denominations were usually only the choice of small depositors and small businesses that NEEDED the change to conduct business.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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