"That young woman sitting on nothing in particular, wearing nothing to speak of, looking over her shoulder at nothing imaginable, and bearing in her left hand something tht looks like a broomstick with a woolen nightcap on it -- what is she doing there?"
This quote if from an 1876 Galaxy magazine article,which is highly critical of the coin.
There are some enthusiastic collectors of seated liberty coinage. The Liberty Seated Collector's Club boasts 600 members. I greatly admire anyone with the stamina to collect this series. In my view, the seated liberty series is dull. Imagine a period in our history where every silver coin had essentially the same design for a period of about fifty years. By the 1880’s many American had probably not seen any coin without the seated liberty design. The design, which appears more French than American, was done by Christian Gobrecht, who was the chief engraver at the mint from 1835 to 1844.
Too many denominations, dates and varieties
The denominations of seated liberty coins include
the half dime (1837 to 1873), the dime (1837 to 1891), twenty cent piece (1875 to 1878), quarter (1838 to 1891), half dollar (1839 to 1891) , and dollar (1840 to 1873). Although some denominations, like the twenty cent piece were short lived, others dragged on. Add to this the fact that coins were minted in Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Carson City. Yes, a complete seated liberty collection is very large.
Collecting Seated Liberty Coins
Interested in assembing a complete set?
Peter Planchet salutes anyone trying to assemble a complete set of Seated Liberty Coins. A complete set has only been assembled once, and only one person can possibly have a complete set. This is because only one 1873CC dime is known. Although 12,400 were minted, most were thought to be melted, and no other has been found. Throughout the series, there are many rare dates. Very few collectors will be able to assemble more than about a fifth of the coins in the series. But this does not mean you should not try. Another way of collecting is simply to get one coin of each denomination. Liberty Coins In 1892, the seated liberty coins were replaced by the Barber coins.