1873 Arrows

The 1873 Arrows half dollar opens the Type 6 With Motto Arrows subtype, a two-year window covering 1873 and 1874 in which the denomination carried small arrowheads flanking the date as a visual notice that the planchet standard had changed. The Coinage Act of February 12, 1873 took effect April 1 and nudged the half dollar's weight from 12.44 grams up to 12.50 grams, or 192.9 grains, a small bump intended to align United States silver subsidiary coinage with the metric weights then in commercial use overseas. The arrows reprised the device used in 1853, when Congress had cut the half dollar's weight in the opposite direction to defuse the bullion-melt crisis after the California Gold Rush. The reported 1,815,700-piece delivery split the year between 12.44-gram dies struck before the April 1 effective date, issued as the 1873 No Arrows Close 3 and Open 3 catalogued on their own pages, and the new 12.50-gram Arrows dies that ran through year-end.

Strike on the Philadelphia issue runs sharper than on the Carson City or San Francisco siblings, with the shield vertical lines, the IN GOD WE TRUST ribbon, and the arrows themselves coming up cleanly on early die states; recurring weakness gathers on Liberty's upper hair strands and the central obverse stars as dies aged. The defining authentication diagnostic is the dual confirmation of arrows flanking the date paired with a struck weight at the new 12.50-gram standard, federal tolerance permitted plus-or-minus 0.2 grams, so a specimen in the 12.30–12.70-gram range is consistent with the post-April standard. Any 1873-dated half lacking arrows is by definition the earlier No Arrows subtype at the old 12.44-gram weight. Grade distribution skews to circulated pieces, with Very Fine through About Uncirculated the dominant survivor band and gems thinning sharply above MS64.

For type collectors the 1873 Arrows holds a mandatory slot. The Type 6 subtype runs only across 1873 and 1874, and a Philadelphia example is the most cost-effective route to filling it, since the Carson City and San Francisco mates sit at meaningful premiums. For the full design arc, see the Seated Liberty Half Dollar series history.