Q. David Bowers
Rarity in VF-20 to AU-58 Grades
Below, various business strike issues in the Liberty Seated series are listed in ascending order of rarity, from commonest to rarest. The first figure of the estimate range is used in determining the order. In this and the following charts, if there is a tie, and the second figure is different, the second figure determines the order. Otherwise, a tie is indicated.
By comparing this and the other charts, it will be seen that the rarity of a given variety changes from one grade level to another.
1842 Approximate population VF-20 to AU-58: 3,500 to 5,000+. (This is the commonest Liberty Seated dollar in these
grade ranges.) ,
1843: 3,500 to 5,000+
1871: 3,000 to 6,000+
1847: 3,000 to 5,000
1872: 2,500 to 5,000+
1860-O: 2,500 to 4,500+
1846: 2,000+ to 4,000 (tied with 1859-O)
1859-O: 2,000+ to 4,000 (tied with 1846)
1849: 1,400 to 2,000
1840: 1,200 to 1,800 (tied with 1870)
1870: 1,200 to 1,800 (tied with 1840)
1841: 1,000+ to 1,500 (tied with 1846-O)
1846-O: 1,000+ to 1,500 (tied with 1841)
1845: 900 to 1,400
1850-O: 800 to 1,200
1859-S: 750 to 1,250
1844: 700 to 1,000 (tied with 1853)
1853: 700 to 1,000 (tied with 1844)
1848: 600 to 1,000
1860: 500+ to 800
1850: 350 to 500 (tied With 1859)
1859: 350 to 500 (tied with 1850)
1862: 350 to 450
1864: 300 to 450
1863: 275 to 400 (tied with 1866)
1866: 275 to 400 (tied with 1863)
1873: 260 to 500
1865: 260 to 400 (tied with 1869, 1872-S)
1869:260 to 400 (tied with 1865, 1872-S)
1872-S 260 to 400 (tied with 1865, 1869
1870-CG: 260 to 350
1868: 225 to 325
1856: 200 to 350
1861: 200 to 300
1855: 175 to 325
1857: 175 to 300
1867: 130 to 225
1854: 130 to 200
1872-CC: 100 to 150
1871-CC: 60 to 100
1873-CC: 50 to 70
1852: 30 to 60
1851: 10 to 20
1870-S: 9
Rarity of Mint State Dollars
During the period that Liberty Seated dollars were minted, from 1840 through 1873 inclusive, so far as I know not a single numismatist collected Philadelphia Mint coins in Uncirculated (Mint State) preservation. Those collectors who wanted to acquire one of each date obtained Proofs. Thus, the survival of business strike Philadelphia Mint dollars today is a matter of chance and circumstance. Among branch mint dollars, those struck at New Orleans, San Francisco, and New Orleans, there were absolutely no collectors (not just probably) by date and mintmark at the time of issue. William Sumner Appleton evinced interest in the subject, but, for example, did not contact the New Orleans Mint in 1846 to obtain a freshly-minted specimen of the first dollar from this source. By 1893, when Augustus G. Heaton published his Mint Marks treatise, there was a slight interest in Liberty Seated dollars by mintmark varieties, but this was 20 years after the last dollar of this design left the dies, and it was too late to obtain Mint State coins from the sources of issue. (However, Heaton did make the enchanting suggestion that collectors in 1893 would do well to contact the Carson City Mint directly to obtain current gold coins!)
Ever since the 1850s, the "first year of issue" has been a popular theme of collecting-especially when something interesting happened to pique the interest and profit dreams of the public. For example, when the first 1883 Liberty nickels appeared without CENTS, and the public thought that the Mint would call them all back and they would become very valuable, they hoarded them by the hundreds of thousands.
Unfortunately for the numismatic community today, nothing special surrounded the introduction of the Liberty Seated dollar in 1840. Mintage records inform us that 61,005 pieces were struck this first year, and it does not take much imagination to conjecture that perhaps the odd five coins were made for presentation or for some long-forgotten ceremony, but if this was the case, the records have either been lost or not yet located.
Liberty Seated dollars were workhorse coins, and during the early years, 1840 through 1849, most went into the channels of commerce, where they served to pay for passage on canal boats, meals in hotels, lithographs by Nathaniel Currier to decorate the parlor, piglets for the barnyard, glasses of ale at a stagecoach stop, admissions to Peale's Museum, and all of the myriad other uses of coins during the mid-nineteenth century. These silver dollars passed from hand to hand and gradually became worn.