Lot 1379
1916 Liberty Standing Quarter Dollar. PCGS graded MS-64 Full Head. All the rivets are present. Frosty white. Bright, overall brilliant surfaces are framed in the lightest golden-tan peripheral shadings. Sharply struck, as befits the Full Head designation, and very nearly in the full Gem category. This is an attractive, high-grade representative of an important key-date issue in the 20th century U.S. Quarter series.
Although the Quarter was not legally slated for redesign until 1917, the Philadelphia Mint struck 52,000 of the new standing Liberty type from December 16 to 31, 1916. The government did not release these coins until early the following year at the same time as the first 1917 Type I pieces. As a 20th century issue with such a limited original mintage, the 1916 is an undeniably popular coin at all levels of preservation, circulated or Mint State. Mint States are the most eagerly sought standing Liberty quarters in today's market, on a par in popularity with the elusive 1918/7-S. An important strike rarity, only 3% of the 1916 Standing Liberty Quarters produced display Full Head definition.
The winner of the Treasury Department's 1915 competition for a new quarter design was Hermon A. MacNeil, whose brilliant standing Liberty motif is considered to be one of the true classics in U.S. numismatics. The initial design of the standing Liberty quarter displayed, among other differences, an exposed right breast on Liberty. Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo (son-in-law of President Woodrow Wilson and a man who also had his sight set on the White House), fearing a scandal, gave into the wishes of the Society for the Suppression of Vice and ordered the design altered after only a few months in production. The coins struck from December, 1916 through July, 1917 display MacNeil's design in its most artistic, unmodified form. Numismatists now refer to this design as the Type I standing Liberty quarter. Pop 107, 82 better (PCGS # 5705) .
Estimated Value $16,000 - 17,000.
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| Realized $25,200 |
