1874 Arrows

The 1874 Arrows Seated Liberty Half Dollar closes the two-year Type 6 With Motto Arrows subtype that ran only through 1873 and 1874. The small arrowheads flanking the date were the Mint's plain-language signal that the Coinage Act of February 12, 1873 had nudged the half dollar's authorized struck weight from 12.44 grams up to 12.50 grams, a recalibration meant to bring United States subsidiary silver into closer alignment with the metric weights then favored in international commerce. By the time the 1874 working dies were prepared the new standard was already a full year in service. Philadelphia delivered 2,360,000 pieces against this standard, the largest figure within the brief Arrows interlude and a clear majority share of the combined 1873-1874 Arrows output across all four producing facilities.

Strike on the 1874 Arrows from Philadelphia generally arrived sharper than the contemporary Carson City and San Francisco siblings, with the shield's vertical lines, the IN GOD WE TRUST ribbon, and the arrowheads themselves coming up cleanly on early die states; later strikes show predictable softening on Liberty's hair strands above the ear and on the eagle's right leg as dies aged. The defining authentication diagnostic is the dual confirmation of arrows bracketing 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 verified specimen registering in the 12.30 to 12.70-gram range is consistent with the post-April 1873 recalibration, while a lightweight planchet sitting nearer 12.44 grams is an immediate disqualifier. Examine the arrowheads under magnification for clean die-struck edges; added-arrow alterations on a No Arrows host coin typically betray tooling marks or a raised collar of disturbed metal around the points. With no mintmark to authenticate, the Philadelphia attribution rests on those weight and design checks alone. Grade distribution skews to circulated survivors, with Very Fine through About Uncirculated the dominant band and certified Mint State examples thinning above MS63.

The 1874 closes Philadelphia's arrows-at-date chapter, and the Mint would not resume an arrows-flagged silver standard again. For the full design arc, including the 1853 Arrows weight reduction, the 1866 motto addition, and the 1873 recalibration that this two-year subtype announces, see the Seated Liberty Half Dollar series history. Updated 2026-03-08.