Talk:Seated Liberty dollar

Seated Liberty dollar is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on April 21, 2015.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
August 27, 2012	Peer review	Reviewed
September 11, 2012	Featured article candidate	Promoted

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on May 28, 2011.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that, due to the California gold rush, the Seated Liberty dollar became scarce in American commerce in the early 1850s, only to cause complaints due to a surplus of the coins by the end of the decade?

Current status: Featured article

Numismatics: American currency Mid‑importance

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Dollar[edit]

This page needs to be renamed to Seated Liberty dollar. Joe I 04:25, 29 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

TFAR[edit]

Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Seated Liberty dollar, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:42, 25 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Congrats![edit]

... on the Main page appearance. I see a stray edit section at the bottom of the article, but I can't figure out how to remove it. ---Another Believer _(Talk) 03:26, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Another Believer! It looks like another editor added a blank section header for some reason, which I've now removed.-RHM22 (talk) 03:32, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Stars[edit]

Notice the 13 stars on obverse are six-pointed stars. Was this usual in mid-19th-C. U.S. coinage? Sca (talk) 12:28, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Sca. It was! As a matter of fact, no dollar coin used five-pointed stars until the Eisenhower dollar in 1971. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that the Barber coinage was the first to use the pentagram. If I remember my history correctly, the hexagram wasn't strongly associated with Judaism in the U.S. until later.-RHM22 (talk) 13:32, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see anything earlier than that. The last design approved to use six-pointed stars that I can find in a hasty search are the Indian Head gold pieces, struck from 1908 to 1929. The American Gold Eagle still uses them, but that's a more or less faithful replica of a design first created in 1907. Not that there were any on regular-issue coins until the Kennedy half dollar, after the Barber quarter and half dollar. Commemoratives dated 1900 and before had six pointed, 1921 and after had five pointed. Stars intended to represent Judaism tend to have the two triangles, so I don't recall there ever having been controversy. People tend to focus on "In God We Trust" instead.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:49, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, scratch a numismatist and you get research! Actually, I wasn't thinking much of Judaism – just assumed the five-pointed star had been standard. Thanks. Sca (talk) 14:24, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have any documentary evidence, but my thought has always been that they switched to the five-pointed because of the Judaism connection of the six-pointed in later years. It may just have been a stylistic preference.-RHM22 (talk) 14:27, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

But the flag has always had five-pointed stars, right? Sca (talk) 14:31, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Some very early flags used six-pointed stars, but they've been pentagrams for the most part. I think there might be some very specific vexillological reason for that, but I don't know what it is.-RHM22 (talk) 14:35, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wow again! – had to look up vexillological. Etymologically, does it means the study of flags is inherently illogical?

Sca (talk) 14:40, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations![edit]

Congratulations to all the contributors to this featured article. You deserve a lot of applause, recognition and appreciation. What a wonderful article.

Bfpage |leave a message 19:47, 23 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks, Bfpage. I'm glad that you liked the article. Wehwalt and I were the principal contributors to this article. My goal is to make previously esoteric or obscure knowledge about American coins freely-available, so those interested won't need to purchase expensive research volumes like past generations.-RHM22 (talk) 20:08, 23 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Information is priceless, don't you think and it is good to see you putting your expertise to work in the philanthropic way. Best Regards,

Bfpage |leave a message 20:11, 23 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. That is what we are doing, freeing information from difficult to get books or archives to be freely available to all.--Wehwalt (talk) 21:53, 23 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]