Capped Bust Quarters

John Reich came to America from Germany and applied for a job at the US Mint. He was hired and was given the task of creating some completely new designs. He designed the “Capped Bust” coinage, first appearing on Half Dollars in 1807 and later on Dime in 1809. The design made its way to the Quarter Dollar in 1815, as no quarters were struck between 1808 and 1814.

Reich’s design portrayed a buxom Miss Liberty facing left, wearing a Phrygian cap with LIBERTY emblazoned across the headband, the date below and 13 stars – 7 to the left and 6 to the right. The reverse has a version of the Heraldic Eagle with wings spread rather than outstretched. The Eagle also faces left, and the inscription “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” surrounds the periphery, a banner above the eagle states, “E PLURIBUS UNUM” and the denomination “25 C.” is at the bottom of the coin.

The first year of issue, 1815, saw 89,235 coins struck. The next year that coins were struck didn’t happen until 1818. Like all early coins, there were numerous overdates and varieties of Large and Small Letters and Numbers.

One special variety was the 1823 Quarters. Only 17,800 were struck and ALL of them are 1823 3/2 overdate and all of them are RARE.

Between 1815 and 1828 all of the coins struck were the so-called Large Size Capped Bust Quarters because they measured 27mm in diameter. No additional Quarters were struck until 1831, which was the new Reduced Diameter Capped Bust Quarter. The Quarters were now only 24.3 millimeters in diameter.

William Kneass did the re-design of Reich’s model, but he made Miss Liberty younger, and he removed the banner with E PLURIBUS UNUM on it above the eagle on the reverse. Kneass’ design was used from 1831 to 1838.