Several arguments were furnished to Congress as justification for creating a 20-cent piece in 1875, but these were mostly specious. The real reason that western legislators pushed for it was to help prop up the market for domestically-mined silver at a time when oversupply of the metal was causing its value to fall. Though this denomination made more sense in our decimal coinage system, the quarter dollar was already firmly entrenched in American society, and the great similarity in size and design of the new coin to the old only made it seem that much more redundant. The Philadelphia Mint's hesitant production of just 38,500 pieces in 1875 had no impact on this coin's viability in circulation, and survivors are scarce across all grades. Its novelty led to a higher survival rate in Mint State than one would expect from such a low mintage, but gems are rare. The Brunner/Frost reference book on this coin series notes two die pairs for this issue, but neither is sufficiently distinctive to be sought as a variety.