[The following article is published courtesy of DLRC Press and its authors, Randy Wiley and Bill Bugert. This information was originally published in 1993 in The Complete Guide to Liberty Seated Half Dollars.]
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MINTAGE: No-Arrows: 5,000 With-Arrows: 228,000
PROOFS: None.
VARIETIES:
- Authors’ Research Effort: extensive
- Number of Die Marriages Documented: 1
- Number of Head Dies Identified: 1
- Number of Tail Dies Identified: 1
- Number of Collar Reed Counts Identified: 1 (145)
- Standard Diameter or Diameter Range: 1.207 to 1.209 inches
- Number of Major Varieties: 1
- WB-101. MINUTE MINTMARK. (1 TAIL DIE)
This mintmark is a different size and style than any previously listed. All coins seen have been from a single die marriage. The head die has large arrowheads at the date. (Breen-4978)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
- (See [14] pages 320-324.)
- All 1873-S coins are found with an arrowhead at each side of the date signifying a weight standard change made in 1873 from 192.0 to 192.9 grains.
- Of the 5,000 minted No-Arrows coins, none are known to exist today. With the April 1, 1873 effective date of the Coinage Act of 1873, all existing No-Arrows coins were supposedly melted at the mint before release. A single No-Arrows piece (Breen-4972), an assay piece shipped to Philadelphia on March 5, 1873 and cataloged in Beistle’s reference [3], is untraced. It may have been in Col Green’s collection when cataloged by Beisde, or more likely, Beistle acknowledged the possible existence of this coin but never really saw it. Most likely, the 1873-S No-Arrows assay coin took the route of most assay pieces and was destroyed.
- We have not seen the Small Broad S claimed by Breen (Breen-4977), and we believe that it is a misattributed minute S.
