1856-S G$1 MS(PCGS#7536)

1856-S G$1 MS (PCGS#7536)

December 2025 Showcase Auction - The James A. Stack, Sr. Collection Part I

Lot Description: A numismatically significant issue, and represented here by a particularly strong AU example. Handsome surfaces blend deep olive-honey and more vivid rose-orange colors. Plenty of softly frosted luster remains, both sides also with impressively sharp detail for a lightly circulated gold dollar of this design type. Handling marks are generally minor, and none are individually distracting during in-hand viewing. The 1856-S is the final issue in the brief Type II gold dollar series, the only one coined at the San Francisco Mint, and the only one dated 1856. (The Philadelphia and Dahlonega gold dollars of 1856 both employed the new Type III design.) Far scarcer in all grades than the 1855-O, the 1856-S has a mintage of 24,600 pieces as opposed to 55,000 coins for its New Orleans Mint predecessor. In addition to its scarcity in high grades (read: AU and Mint State), the 1856-S is known for a dramatic repunched mintmark variety, which comprises approximately half of the known survivors. As seen on the present example, bold remnants of the secondary S are evident above and to the right of the primary mintmark. The FS-501 attribution that identifies this variety is not noted on the PCGS insert of this coin.