1854 $1 AU50 Certification #32518307, PCGS #6942

Charles Morgan

The 1854 Liberty Seated Dollar

For the first decade of the silver dollar’s resumed coinage, the Philadelphia Mint handled production almost exclusively. Exceptions occurred with the 1846-O and 1850-O, when the New Orleans Mint struck 59,000 and 40,000 pieces, respectively. However, demand for the large silver denomination did not materialize again in the Crescent City until 1859.

The series expanded westward with a "picayune" mintage of just 20,000 pieces for the 1859-S (#6948), marking the first of four San Francisco issues. The Carson City Mint did not begin production until 1870, just four years before the design and denomination were suspended under the Coinage Act of 1873.

Philadelphia’s production during the 1850s was erratic, ranging from a low of 7,500 coins in 1850 (#6937) to a peak of 255,700 in 1859 (#6946). Typically, however, annual production fell well below the 100,000-coin threshold.

The 1854 Liberty Seated Dollar (#6942) falls on the lower end of the mintage spectrum, with only 33,140 business strikes and approximately 30 Proofs produced. The entire business-strike mintage was executed on a single day—June 29, 1854—using a single pair of dies. As a matter of trivia, the minting of these dollars occurred just one week before the first convention of the newly formed Republican Party was held in Jackson, Michigan.

These coins utilized the same date punch found on the "Small Date" 1854 Liberty Head Double Eagles (#8911). The base of 4 is lightly repunched. Bottoms of the date appear bolder. "Cross-hatching" die lines are visible in the chief and base of the shield.

The Silver Crisis and the Act of 1853

The attrition rate of Liberty Seated coinage from 1840 through the late 1850s is remarkably high. The glut of California gold pushed the relative value of silver upward, making America's silver coins worth more than their face value. While the Coinage Act of 1853 reduced the weight of lower denominations to keep them in circulation, it did not impact the weight of the dollar coin.

This weight disparity further bungled the silver situation; by overproducing lighter subsidiary coins, the Act led to a lack of confidence in the currency’s value. Consequently, some creditors began refusing payment in silver for amounts exceeding $5, which was the legal tender limit established for the new, lighter coins.

Still, silver dollars remained prime targets for the melting pot—not necessarily within America, but overseas. The bulk of the 1854 issue was used for international trade, effectively depleting the domestic supply and leaving very few examples for collectors today.

Survival Estimates and Market Reality

PCGS estimates that fewer than 900 examples of the 1854 dollar survive in total, but far fewer are considered "gradable" by modern market standards. Of the surviving population, most specimens fall within the About Uncirculated (AU) range. In the market—given the coin's high numismatic value—typical gradable examples usually surface in Very Fine (VF) to Extra Fine (XF) condition.

In Mint State, the 1854 Liberty Seated Dollar remains a "sleeper" compared to more famous numismatic icons. For perspective, it is more difficult to find a Mint State 1854 Liberty Seated Dollar than an 1895 Morgan Dollar Proof (#7330). While catalogers reflexively crown the 1895 as the "King of Morgans," the uninitiated might need to consult a Red Book to appreciate the 1854. The scarcity of the issue wasn't lost of 19th-century dealer Edward Cogan, who counted the 1854 as one of rarest silver dollars in the March 1869 issue of the American Journal of Numismatics.

When Heritage Auctions offered the Richmond-Sweet-Gardner specimen in 2015, the cataloguer noted a remark, previously reported by Q. David Bowers:

PCGS reports seven grading events in MS64 and three finer, two in MS65 and one in MS66. NGC shows two MS64 and six finer, all MS65. These totals no doubt include some resubmissions and crossovers. Bruce Amspacher [PCGS Coin Dealer Hall of Famer] asked one collector about his MS65 PCGS coin:

"He said he had sent it in six times. I mentioned that he could send in the old printed inserts and the duplications would be erased from the report. 'I threw 'em away,' he said."

Testing the Hypothesis

Testing this anecdote against available data, I have identified two examples submitted in 1989 that have never appeared at public auction. A third coin was certified five years later and has also eluded my research. While Amspacher’s "six" might have actually been "three," or some data cleanup has occurred since, the numbers remain suspect.

My Hypothesis: The true "in-the-holder" population at the MS64 level is likely only three coins. I also highly question the existence of a second MS65. In short, this is an exceptionally scarce coin in Mint State—far rarer than the official numbers indicate.

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