Collectors Corner^SM: The Collectibles Marketplace

1930 was the last year of the Standing Liberty Quarter series. Click image to enlarge.

Many didn’t know it at the time, but when the 1930 Standing Liberty Quarter rolled off the presses of the United States Mint facilities in Philadelphia and San Francisco, it wound up being the end of the line for a coin that helped revive the American numismatic art scene. The United States Mint really scored a trifecta when it introduced the Standing Liberty Quarter alongside the Mercury Dime and Walking Liberty Half Dollar in 1916. The Standing Liberty Quarter, designed by Hermon A. MacNeil, came into being late in 1916 and saw the United States through some of the darkest days of World War I, the ballyhoo o f the Roaring ‘20s, and the beginning of the Great Depression.

In 1930, as the United States was really beginning to slide into the depths of the Great Depression, mintages for new coins were shrinking as the economic need to produce huge quantities of coinage just wasn’t there. Philadelphia struck 5,632,000 examples of the Standing Liberty Quarter in 1930 while San Francisco minted just 1,556,000. Following suit with the situation that befell many other larger-denomination coins, including the half dollar and several gold denominations, there were no quarters produced in 1931. By that time, Congress had already been considering legislation to honor the 200th anniversary of the first U.S. President George Washington’s birth on a 1932 coin, one first proposed to be a half dollar before legislation moved the Washington Bicentennial design to the quarter.

The new Washington Quarter design proved successful in 1932 – so much so that there was no going back to the Standing Liberty motif. Even still, Standing Liberty Quarters remained in circulation into the 1960s before silver hoarders effectively removed them and other 90% silver coinage en masse as bullion prices rapidly rose during that decade. Meanwhile, the 1930 Standing Liberty Quarters are popular as a last-year-of-issue piece and as an important capstone for collectors building date-and-mintmark sets of Standing Liberty Quarters.

Today, collectors can obtain G4 specimens for rather small premiums over the intrinsic value of the coins. Those seeking better-quality examples can find nice XF40 specimens for around $75 apiece. Examples in MS63 go for approximately $325. With Full Head designation, the San Francisco specimens prove notably scarcer than their Philadelphia counterparts, with an S-mint taking $1,250 in MS65FH and the Philly going for “just” $950 in the equivalent grade. Regardless of grade, always look for 1930 Standing Liberty Quarters boasting strong strikes and overall nice eye appeal.