1847

The 1847 Seated Liberty Quarter records a Philadelphia delivery of 734,000 pieces, a recovery of roughly 44 percent over the curtailed 1846 mintage and a return to the production range that defined the parent mint through the With Drapery No Motto stretch. The issue is a standard pre-Arrows quarter on the 6.68-gram weight set by the Mint Act of January 18, 1837, struck nearly six years before the Coinage Act of February 21, 1853 would cut the standard to 6.22 grams. The Mexican-American War was running at full pressure during 1847, and federal silver coinage in general remained in steady demand across the Atlantic seaboard and the river commerce zones, where bank notes from outside the major eastern centers often traded at troubling discounts and hard silver moved hand-to-hand at face.

What grades and authenticates an 1847 quarter follows the standard pre-Arrows checklist. The drapery folds at Liberty's elbow must be cleanly defined; their presence separates the issue from the 1838 through mid-1840 No Drapery design and confirms a properly attributed coin. Strikes on the date are typically average for the era, with the eagle's right leg and the lower shield rivets occasionally showing softness on later die states but with central head detail and stars usually sharp on a well-graded piece. Larry Briggs catalogs the issue without separately-priced major varieties, though minor date-position differences exist for specialists working at the die-marriage level. Weight should fall within roughly 6.60 to 6.74 grams; counterfeits in the early Seated quarter series are uncommon relative to the higher-value gold and dollar issues, but cleaning, whizzing, and light tooling are routine condition problems on circulated examples that aggressive dealers sometimes try to slip past inexperienced buyers. PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, screen these reliably, and a certified holder remains the practical safeguard for any coin priced above generic type levels.

For a date-set builder, the 1847 is among the more available pre-Arrows Philadelphia quarters in Fine through Extremely Fine and a solid starter date for collectors entering the series. About Uncirculated coins command a modest premium over type, and Mint State pieces with full luster and clean fields are scarcer than the 734,000 mintage suggests because the silver-export pressure of the early 1850s thinned out the unworn population. The PCGS and NGC certified populations skew sharply to circulated grades, consistent with the melting pattern that shaped survival for the entire pre-Arrows era. For the broader story of Gobrecht's design and the series' production arc, see the Seated Liberty Quarter series history.