1867-S

The 1867-S Seated Liberty Quarter is a 48,000-piece San Francisco delivery from the second year of the With Motto subtype, struck under the same Reconstruction pressures that had already held down the 1866-S figure. The S-Mint quarter line continued to operate as a secondary priority behind California gold, the bullion supply ran short of where it had been in the late 1850s, and West Coast specie pressure persisted even as the East Coast remained on suspended-payment footing. The coin was struck on the 6.22-gram standard set by the Coinage Act of February 21, 1853 and belongs to the 1866-1873 With Motto subtype, with the scroll reading "IN GOD WE TRUST" above the eagle. West Coast circulation kept the surviving population working hard for decades after the war.

Authentication of an 1867-S starts with the S mintmark below the eagle on the reverse, which should sit cleanly within original mint surface and show no tooling halo, recutting, or color mismatch suggesting a transplanted mintmark from a Philadelphia host. The motto scroll above the eagle must be complete and undisturbed. Strike follows the familiar San Francisco pattern of the period, with softness concentrated on Liberty's head and the upper shield lines. Weight on a genuine planchet falls within tolerance of 6.22 grams. Larry Briggs catalogs the limited working die marriages for the year, and the small mintage means most surviving examples trace to a narrow group of die pairs whose breaks and clash markers help confirm attribution.

For a date-set builder, the 1867-S is a genuine Semi-Key that surfaces in Good through Very Good with reasonable regularity and becomes scarce in Fine and above. Mint State coins are condition rarities, and the PCGS and NGC certified populations show the bottom-loaded grade distribution typical of West Coast Reconstruction-era silver. Original-skin circulated pieces with honest gray patina trade at firm premiums to dipped competition. Prices have firmed over the past two decades, but the 1867-S remains achievable in collector grades for buyers willing to take a circulated coin with original surfaces. For the broader story of Gobrecht's design, the 1866 motto addition, and the series' production arc, see the Seated Liberty Quarter series history.