Q. David Bowers
Business Strikes:
Enabling legislation: Act of January 18, 1837 Designer of obverse: Robert Ball Hughes (after Gobrecht)
Designer of reverse: Robert Ball Hughes (after Reich)
Weight and composition: 412.5 grains; .900 silver, . 100 copper
Melt-down (silver value) in year minted: $1.005 Dies prepared: Obverse: Unknown; Reverse: Unknown
Business strike mintage: 59,000; Delivery figures by month: June: 59,000.
Estimated quantity melted: Unknown
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 0 or 1 (URS-O)
Approximate population MS-64: 1 or 2 (URS-1)
Approximate population MS-63: 3 to 5 (URS-3)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 10 to 20 (URS-5)
Approximate population VF-20 to AU-58: 1,000+ to 1,500, most of which are below EF (URS-12)
Characteristics of striking: Average strike, often showing weakness, particularly on the eagle's head and claws; stars at the right side of the obverse are often weak .
Known hoards of Mint State coins: None
Proofs:
None
Commentary
This was the first branch mint Liberty Seated dollar and one of just four dates coined from the New Orleans Mint (the others: 1850-O, 1859-O, and 1860-O).
Additional Information
What Might Have Been
What might have been but wasn't is an appropriate comment on the shipment of four pairs of dies from Philadelphia to New Orleans for use in coining 1847-O dollars, but no such coins were ever made. Four more pairs were shipped from Philadelphia to New Orleans for making 1848-O dollars, but these too never materialized.
The Treasury also intended that 1849-O dollars be made, and one obverse die bearing that date was shipped to New Orleans, to be mated with one or more reverses left over from earlier times. However, no 1849-O dollars were made. As it turned out, 1849 was a year for silver rarities at the New Orleans Mint, and collectors today recognize the half dime, dime, and quarter of the 1849 issue as elusive.