1870 Liberty Head $2.50 Gold Quarter Eagle Coin

1870 Liberty Head quarter eagles are valuable collectible coins that collectors treasure for their history, art, and gold content. Only the Philadelphia and San Francisco mints struck quarter eagles in 1870, which means there are just two regular-issue business-strike pieces for the collector to pursue.

Here’s a look at the mintages and values of 1870 $2.50 quarter eagles:

• 1870, 4,520 minted; $641

• 1870-S, 16,000; $595

*Values are for coins grading Very Fine-20, unless otherwise stated.

While mintage figures above indicate that thousands of both issues were made, perhaps only hundreds still exist. This is largely due to the melting of most pre-1933 U.S. gold coins for their precious metal content, which was scavenged by smelters particularly after the nation left the gold standard in 1933. Quarter eagles are made of a “coin gold” composition that consists of 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper. They have a weight of 4.18 grams, contain a total of 0.1202 ounces of gold, and measure 18 millimeters in diameter, which is roughly the diameter of a modern-day U.S. dime.

Christian Gobrecht designed 1870 $2.50 gold quarter eagle coins. Yet, even beyond his tenure as the U.S. Mint’s chief engraver, perhaps Gobrecht is most recognized as having designed Seated Liberty coinage, which ran from the late 1830s through 1891.