Why did they bother? The strange story of the 1916 SLQ

[RockMyAmadeus]

This is a question mainly for Roger, but anyone else with the scholarship on it, please feel free to respond.

 

My question is, why did they bother with the 1916 SLQ? Was it a "well, we've produced the dime and the half, might as well do the quarter, too?"

 

With only 52,000 examples, it became the second rarest circulation silver issue of the entire 20th century. Granted, 52,000 was still a significant amount in WWI era coinage, and certainly not a mintage that could be quickly absorbed by collectors of the day (especially when 25 cents represented about a 1/2-1 hour's wages.)

 

Is it because they'd already prepared the dies in July, and didn't want to waste them? Certainly, 52,000 wasn't a full die life for the SLQ?

 

I would understand if they'd minted nothing else, but between Philly and Denver, they minted 8,328,800 1916 Barber quarters...it's not like they had a shortage of quarters minted that year that 52,000 extra examples would have made a difference.

 

So why did they do it?

 

[RWB]

The new designs for 1916 were supposed to be ready for production on July 1, 1916. But there were so many problems with the reductions the mint made, and corrections that had to be made to designs to make them "coinable," that the deadline kept slipping.

 

By Oct, good designs for the dime and half were ready, but the quarter was still too flat. McNeil had revised the design in late August and the Sec Treasury approved it, but it was not used. Instead engravers Barber and Morgan kept tinkering with the original obverse and a modified reverse.

 

In late November, the Philadelphia Mint was told to go ahead and produce new quarters of the better of the mint's version of MacNeil's designs. The only reason for doing this was to complete the three coin set of designs. The 1917 quarter design was already in the works but could not be ready for December use.

 

[Conder101]

It probably had something to do with the mindset they had at the time that the designs must be changed every 25 years. The dime quarter and half had been changed in 1892 and 1916 was the "must change" year. If they didn't get it do they design change years would be out of step. Just a guess, no proof.

[James_OldeTowne]

It probably had something to do with the mindset they had at the time that the designs must be changed every 25 years. The dime quarter and half had been changed in 1892 and 1916 was the "must change" year. If they didn't get it do they design change years would be out of step. Just a guess, no proof.

I echo Mike's thoughts as well. If only things were like that now....