Q. David Bowers
Numismatic Information
Circulated grades: Some 46,100 dollars were struck of this date, and today they are scarce but are seen more often than any other Philadelphia Mint coin of the decade of the 1850s. Why this is the case is not certain, but the answer must lie in the method of distribution. While many were shipped overseas, significant numbers must have remained within the United States.
Here is a mystery, one of many within the Liberty Seated dollar series. Perhaps some future contributor to The Gobrecht Journal will come up with some ideas and share his thoughts with all of us.
Two obverse dies were made for this issue, but it is not known if both were used on business strikes (one may have been used years later for Proof restrikes; see below). In circulated grades the 1853 is elusive; as the mintage of 46,110 suggests, but is still the most available Liberty Seated dollar issue of the early 1850s. For some reason, Mint State pieces (see below) are seen much more often than other dates of its era (such as 1854 and 1855). Top grade business strikes have deeply frosty surfaces with no suggestion of prooflike characteristics. Sometimes the stars are lightly impressed.
Mint State grades: I believe that somewhere a small hoard of Mint State pieces of this particular date came to light in the 1970s or early 1980s, but I have seen no notice of such in print. Prior to this, Uncircul1ated 1853 dollars were very rare. Most Mint State, coins are brilliant or lightly golden toned and are very frosty (rather than prooflike in areas), and seem to have come from a common source (in contrast to pieces from different sources, which have a wide variety of toning, handling marks, etc.). In any event, the 1853 is the only readily available Mint State Liberty Seated dollar of its immediate time frame.
Proof coins: Conventional wisdom has it that no original Proof silver dollars were minted in 1853, and that all known pieces are novodels: coins struck at the Mint years later using backdated dies; coins for which no equivalent originals exist. George F. Jones, writing in the Coin Collectors' Manual; 1860, noted:
The "Proof sets," so called, contained the silver dollar, half dollar, quarter dollar, dime, half dime, three-cent piece, and cent [no mention of the half cent], and have been issued regularly since 1840, with the exception of the year 1853, in which no Proofs were coined. Prior to 1860 they were given to collectors, from the Mint, for $2.02, now they are $3. (Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Proof Coins, 1722-1989, p. 27.)
The face value of the typical copper and silver Proof set of the 1850s (after the introduction of the three-cent piece in 1851) was $1.94; thus the retail price of $ 2.02 represented just a nominal charge for proofing and handling. This represents about a 4% premium on the face value of each coin or, put another way, $1.08 for the dollar (the charge for the dollar levied by Director Snowden beginning in 1853).
James Ross Snowden became superintendent of the Mint this year (service dates: June 1853 to April 1861) and introduced the term Proof to the United States Mint nomenclature, such term being employed at least by 1854. Earlier, the designation for such pieces was Master coins or, alternatively, Specimen coins. (Graham Dyer, in "A Living Collection," World Coins magazine, cites an 1816 use of Proof in the current sense, by William Wellesley Pole, master of the Royal Mint.)
Proof silver dollars: The traditional view (cf. Walter H. Breen's Encyclopedia and other texts) is that no original Proofs were made, an oversight which was compensated for, unofficially, by a clandestine production at the Philadelphia Mint in late 1862 or early 1863. This was done by creating a new obverse die, with file marks from the base of Liberty above the numerals 53, or by utilizing a previously unused original die. According to Walter H. Breen, the reverse was struck from a regular Proof die used to coin 1862 and possibly 1863 Proof dollars. It is believed that 12 silver impressions and four in copper were made, although such production figures are not necessarily accurate, as the mintage itself was secret, and there was no reason for Mint officials to be honest about the production figures when they were dishonest about the coinage itself.
So far as is known, 1853 Proof dollars first came to the notice of collectors because of a listing in W. Elliot Woodward's catalogue of the John F. McCoy Collection, which crossed the auction block May 17- 21, 1864.
Varieties
Business strikes:
1.Normal Date: Breen-5449. Two obverse dies were made for business strikes, but these have not been differentiated in the literature. The vast majority of 1853 business strike dollars are of the so-called "Chin Whiskers" variety, with die finish lines extending downward from the chin of Miss Liberty, a feature seen on certain other issues as well. Are the with-whiskers and without-whiskers coins from different dies? If not, and if all known business strikes are from one obverse die, perhaps the restrikes (see below) were from the second obverse die known to have been made in 1853.
Proofs:
1.Proof issue: Breen-5449. Obverse: Either a new die was made up about 1862, or this is the otherwise unidentified second obverse. Obverse: With slightly raised diagonal lines below base of Liberty, beginning above 8 of date, extending for a short distance down to right. Raised die lines through 853 of date. Many minute raised die lines in field; die incompletely polished. Reverse: Microscopic raised die striae visible above eagle when the coin is held at a certain angle to the light; these parallel striae slope slightly downward to right. In the fourth vertical shield stripe, the left two elements do not quite touch the border of the shield.
Five specimens examined have all had a raised die line on the flat part of the rim, such line extending diagonally beginning above the left side of the N of UNITED, going inward to near the denticles in a straight line above the adjacent I. In the vertical shield stripes, in the upper right side of the fourth group of stripes (counting from the left), there seem to be traces of an extra stripe.