1877 Liberty Head $2.50 Gold Quarter Eagle Coin

1877 Liberty Head $2.50 gold coins are numismatic treasures that remain popular today among series enthusiasts and type collectors. Only two mints, those in Philadelphia and San Francisco, produced 1877 quarter eagles, meaning there are two different business-strike issues to collect for the year.

Here’s a rundown of the mintages and values of 1877 $2.50 quarter eagles:

• 1877, 1,632 minted; $700

• 1877-S, 35,400; $582

*Values are for coins grading Very Fine-20, unless otherwise stated.

Mintage figures listed above reveal tens of thousands of quarter eagles having been made at both mints that in 1877, but in reality just a small fraction of those coins still exist. This is the case for most pre-1933 U.S. coins, which were melted in large numbers during the 20th century. Quarter eagles are made of a “coin gold” composition consisting of 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper. They have a weight of 4.18 grams, contain a total of 0.1202 ounces of gold, and measure 18 millimeters in diameter, which is roughly the diameter of a current U.S. dime.

Christian Gobrecht designed 1877 $2.50 gold quarter eagle coins. In addition to having served as the U.S. Mint’s chief engraver, perhaps Gobrecht is most recognized as having designed Seated Liberty coinage, which ran from the late 1830s through 1891.