Q. David Bowers
Business. Strikes:
Enabling legislation: Act of January 18, 1837 (weight and fineness); Act of March 3, 1865 (motto)
Designer of obverse: Robert Ball Hughes (after Gobrecht)
Designer of reverse: J.B. Longacre (after Hughes and Reich)
Weight and composition: 412.5 grains; .900 silver, .100 copper
Melt-down (silver value) in year minted: $1.022 Dies prepared: Obverse: Unknown; Reverse: Unknown
Business strike mintage: 1,105,500; Delivery figures by day: January 16: 11,000; January 18: 20,000; January 20: 11,000; January 22: 12,000; January 24: 1O,000;January 25: 5,000;January 29: 14,700; February 2: 15,000; February 3: 10,000; February 5: 8,000; February 6: 10,000; February 7: 12,000; February 9: 13,000; February 15: 25,600; February 23: 14,700; March 5: 30,000; March 15: 12,000; March 18: 10,000; March 22: 12,000; March 25: 9,600; March 27: 8,700; March 30: 6,000; April 4: 5,000; April 6: 10,000; April 10: 10,000; April 12: 9,600; April 18: 10,000; April 22: 300; May 27: 18,000; May 28: 10,400; May 31: 10,600; June 3: 14,000; June 4: 14,600;June 11: 9,600; June 21: 14,800; June 25: 18,000; July 2: 18,000; July 8: 16,000; July 10: 11,000; July 12; 15,000; July 16: 25,000; July 23: 18,000; July 25: 12,000;July 30: 34,000; August 6: 17,000; August 7: 12,000; August 15: 24,000; August 19: 23,000; August 22: 27,000; September 3: 23,000; September 6: 12,000; September 11: 14,000; September 16: 36,000; September 17: 13,000; September 20: 19,000; September 25: 26,000; October 25: 20,800; October 29: 13,000; October 31: 20,800; November 6: 25,000; November 12, 12,000; November 13: 11,000; November 14: 12,000; November 15: 14,700; December 2: 12,000; December 4: 18,000; December 5: 18,000; December 6: 9,000; December 9: 16,000; December 10: 8,000; December 11: 12,000; December 12: 8,000; December 13: 13,000; December 20: 18,000; December 24: 14,000.
Estimated quantity melted: Unknown
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 5 to 8 (URS-4)
Approximate population MS-64: 20 to 30 (URS-6)
Approximate population MS-63: 25 to 50 (URS-6)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 75-125+ (URS-8)
Approximate population VF-20 to AU-58: 2,500 to 5,000+ (URS-13)
Characteristics of striking: Varies; some with stars 4 through 13 flat, or others flat; often with Miss Liberty's head lightly struck.
Known hoards of Mint State coins: Several hundred are believed to have been released by the Treasury in 1962-1964.
Proofs:
Dies prepared: Obverse: 1; Reverse: 1 (plus Doubled Die left over from 1871).
Proof mintage: 950; delivery dates: January 31: 150 delivered; February 20: 100; March 4: 100; March 8: 100; April 9: 150; June 15: 100; September 2: 100; October 18: 100; December 11: 50.
Approximate population Proof-65 or better: 22+/- (URS-6)
Approximate population Proof-64: 110+/- (URS-8)
Approximate population Proof-63: 117+/- (URS-8)
Approximate population Proof-60 to 62: 175+/- (URS-9)
Commentary
The 1872 Liberty Seated dollar was coined in larger quantities than any other issue of the design.
Concerning Edge Reeding
In an article in the Gobrecht Joumal in 1978, "1872 Seated Dollars," Dr. John W. McCloskey noted that he counted the reeds on specimens of 1872-dated dollars in his collection and found that the Philadelphia coin had 179, the Carson City issue had 190, and the San Francisco piece had 177. Apparently, the three mints each made their own collars, even as with other denominations. (Per letter from Walter H. Breen to the author, February 23, 1992.) This admittedly technical subject would probably yield interesting results if the study were expanded to include other Liberty Seated issues. In particular, it would ease detection of forgeries.
The Year 1872 in History
The Great Epizootic of 1872 saw an estimated four million horses killed by an equine virus suspected of having come from Canada. This wreaked havoc upon urban transportation. In September in Philadelphia and New York, men were hitched to street cars to haul passengers and to carts to haul goods. In November a fire in Boston devastated 766 buildings and caused an estimated $75 million in damage, in part because the majority of horses to pull steam fire engines were incapacitated. Commerce suffered, and the Epizootic was given as one of the precipitating causes of the following year's Panic of '73.
The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad was organized and would become an important line for commuters and other travelers to and from New York City. In 1872, the Jesse James gang staged its first train robbery. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust refined 10,000 barrels of kerosene daily and received not only favorable transportation rates on railroads, but also "drawbacks" or rebates from the railroads on rates they charged Standard's competitors (who in some instances had to pay five times more than Standard did). Commodore Vanderbilt, who had his own monopolies, provided funds to establish Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Susan B. Anthony and other advocates of women's rights dared to attempt to vote in the presidential election on November 5th and were arrested. The contest went to U.S. Grant, who was reelected on the Republican ticket even though his administration was poorly run and corrupt. His challenger was Horace Greeley, widely-traveled editor of The New York Tribune.
Congress created Yellowstone National Park by the act of March 1, 1872. Another law made it illegal to use the United States mails to defraud. At the time, mail order was prospering, and one could order anything from a gallon of whiskey to a parlor reed organ by sending off a check. One of the greatest of all mail-order companies, Montgomery Ward, was founded this year in Chicago.
Eadweard Muybridge took a sequence of still photographs showing a horse galloping, at the commission of Leland Stanford, who sought to prove that at a point while galloping, all four hooves are off the ground (they are). This and other experiments (many conducted in France) would lay the groundwork for motion pictures.
In a very complicated and extended case, the Geneva Court of Arbitration on September 14, 1872 found that Great Britain was responsible for the privateering of the Confederate raider Alabamaagainst Union vessels in the Civil War. Britain was supposed to have been neutral, but in the British Isles the Alabama was fitted for war, on orders of the Confederacy. It captured millions of dollars' worth of booty, including one memorable shipment of Drake's Plantation Bitters (included in the indemnification of 1872). In one of the greatest of all naval mysteries, the brigantine Mary Celeste departed from New York for Genoa with a crew of 10. Three weeks later the ship was discovered afloat at sea, in perfect condition and with its cargo intact, but without a soul aboard.
In the meantime in the United States, specie payments continued. in suspension, and Fractional Currency notes, most of which were dirty and tattered, took the place of coins in many small transactions. Indian cents, two-cent pieces, nickel three-cent pieces, and nickel five-cent pieces circulated actively, although by this time the two-cent piece had fallen out of favor. The illustrious "Amazonian" design, by William Barber, was used on certain pattern .25, .50, and $1 issues.