1878 Liberty Head $2.50 Gold Quarter Eagle Coin

1878 Liberty Head $2.50 gold coins are very popular numismatic collectibles that remain widely collected today. Just two mints, those in Philadelphia and San Francisco, produced 1878 quarter eagles, meaning there are two different business-strike issues to collect for the year. Yet, hundreds of thousands of $2.50 coins were made that year – a staggering figure given the relatively tiny mintages seen during the previous few years within the Liberty Head quarter eagle series.

Here’s a look at the mintages and values of 1875 $2.50 quarter eagles:

• 1878, 286,240 minted; $564

• 1878-S, 178,000; $564

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

In reality the existing mintages listed above are much greater than the number of 1878 quarter eagles that actually exist today. This is a common situation for pre-1933 U.S. coins, which were melted in large numbers during the 20th century. $2.50 gold coins are made of a “coin gold” composition consisting 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 current U.S. dime.

Christian Gobrecht, who had served as the U.S. Mint chief engraver during the 1840s, designed 1878 $2.50 gold quarter eagle coins. Additionally, Gobrecht is perhaps most widely known for having designed Seated Liberty coinage, which ran from the late 1830s through 1891.