Q. David Bowers
Most of the action was with Morgan dollars, for those existed in large quantities. Seated Liberty coins were far fewer in number.
John J. Ford,Jr. Remembers
John J. Ford. Jr, partner in New Netherlands Coin Company in the 1960s, told of his experiences with Liberty Seated dollars released by the Treasury circa 1963: (Interview with the author, May 12, 1992.)
[After we all had a field day with the formerly rare 1903-O .and other Morgan dollars] it became the new thing to try to get bags coming directly from the Treasury Department which contained Liberty Seated dollars. After hearing this news, and about the rare dates of Morgans, everybody went nuts; that was the famous deal where a brigade of people went down to the Treasury Department with wheelbarrows and baby carriages. and everything else to carry the stuff out of the Treasury building, which was right across the street from the White House. In any event, [New York City dealer] Ed Shapiro, I remember did a big business with a baby carriage.
Harry Forman started handling Liberty Seated dollars, and when he came in the office one day and showed me a VG 1852 I couldn't believe it. I said. "Gee, a worn 1852!"
There were all kinds of rumors. Harry called me and told me a guy had a bag of 1859-O. Liberty Seated dollars for which he wanted a ridiculous price;, somebody wanted $12,000. I was on vacation, and tried to, negotiate the deal on the phone with [my partner Charles] Wormser in the office, but he didn't want to put that much. money in one coin unless we had them pres old. I thought it was a great coin to buy because many Liberty Seated coins were over a century old. I know the '59-Os existed because Charles saw them when they were brought to the office by Harry. '
Charles signed the checks, and balked at the prospect. He didn't balk often; he just thought it was ridiculous buying that many of the same coin.
Anyhow, back in the early 1960s, Harry Forman would periodically come to New York and sell me 1871, 1872, and 1873 CC Mint coins, mostly '72s.These were in average condition, Fine to Very Fine plus, maybe a few EF. He had a steady supply of those. Often, we would have six or seven '72- CCs in stock at once. Harry handled a lot of Liberty Seated dollars, and often gave me first crack at them.
And I remember there was a coin I always thought had terrific potential, but it never really went anywhere-the '59- S, a one-year type. I thought the 1859-S would go someplace, and we bought maybe a half dozen of those, and I could have bought more. Most were Fine to Very Fine, mostly with bagmarks. Soon, the Liberty Seated dollar supply fizzled out.
An Unusual Happening
According to the May 15, 1976 issue of Numismatic News, page 1 { the General Services Administration sent an 1864 Liberty Seated dollar instead of a worn Morgan or Peace dollar for an auction price at the minimum of $3, during the government's sale of about three million coins held back after the 1962-1964 Treasury release. This stray piece was shipped in error to Albert J. Bean of Niagara Falls, New York. At the time it was worth about $200.
The Author Remembers
In 1963, Jim Ruddy and I, who owned Empire Coin Company" Inc., of Johnson City, New York, bought a quantity of Liberty Seated dollars. I don't remember how many there were, but it certainly was no more than a few thousand. These came to Jim Ruddy and me from one of the Federal Reserve Banks- I think. It was Cleveland-through an intermediary in Detroit, We were so excited that when our first shipment arrived we skipped our daily luncheon ritual at the nearby Crystal Tea Room (where a nice lunch cost about $1) and stayed in our offices to sort dollars.
We figured out that the best thing to do was to mark off areas on a large table top, one space for each date from 1840 through 1873. We hoped for the best, and we even set aside spaces for 1851, 1852'; and 1858-the three Philadelphia Mint rarities! As the piles stacked up, I remember that 1847 was the most common of the early dates, followed by 1846. Yes, we had piles of such dates as 1844, 1845, and 1848! Among the later ones, 1871 arid 1872 were the most often seen. We didn't find ah 1851, 1852, or 1858, nor did we find an 1871-CC or 1873-CC, or, of course, 1870-S, but I think we found all. Of the others. I recall that we found several 1870-CC and 1872-S. I don't remember about 1872-CC, but we might have found one or two. Typical coins were VF and EF, although there were some lower coins, a smattering of AU pieces, and possibly a few in minimum Uncirculated, equivalent to what we might call MS-60 today. All were the same dull brownish-gray color that I had become used to in sorting through innumerable bags of worn Morgan dollars.
All of us who dealt in silver dollars back then felt a vague sense of uneasiness and distrust. Rumors were a dime a dozen, and no one knew if a given bag of worn Liberty Seated dollars (or specific date of Morgan or Peace dollar, for that matter) was the last of its kind (and therefore should be held back, or sold for a higher price) or whether it was one of hundreds more of bags .that would be dumped on the market in the next few weeks or months. For all
Jim Ruddy and I knew, hundreds of thousands of Liberty Seated dollars would soon be coming on the market. There were even rumors of early Flowing Hair, Draped Bust, Gobrecht dollars being discovered (none of these stories ever checked out). Coin dealers love to tell stories, and the more imaginative members of the profession had a field day outdoing each other!
Reality was that the bags of worn Liberty Seated dollars soon petered out, and no more were available. There were no large quantities dumped on the market, and the coins we handled-a few thousand at most-were all that we were ever to handle in bulk.