1869 $1 MS(PCGS#6962)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

6027

Grade

AU55

Price

1,620

Lot Description

OC Die State a/c. A deeply toned piece with dominant pewter gray patina and steely-olive outlines to the design elements. Some mauve, gold and blue undertones flash into view at direct lighting angles. The detail is sharp for the grade. The 1869 is part of the final historical era in the Liberty Seated dollar series - the relatively high mintage issues of 1868 to 1873. It is also one of the most underrated issues of the type with survivors far rarer than a generous mintage of 423,700 circulation strikes might suggest. Virtually all of the bullion for the 1869 issue came from increasing production at the Comstock and other western mines, and virtually all examples were exported to Asian markets. This begs a question not often addressed in the numismatic literature: if the silver came from Nevada and the destination was the Far East, why were these coins struck at the distant Philadelphia Mint instead of the closer San Francisco Mint (which had already struck 20,000 silver dollars in 1859)? The answer is simple: the vast majority of Liberty Seated dollars described as being "exported to China" followed trade routes from the Eastern United States to Asia that had been established in the early 1840s. These either went via the South Atlantic and Pacific oceans, or to Europe and through the London market. Your cataloger (JLA) suspects that many Liberty Seated dollars exported through the latter route never actually reached China, the coins being reexported to India from England, where the price of silver was generally higher than it was in Europe. Since the Mexican dollar was favored for commercial use, Liberty Seated dollars were valued only as bullion no matter where they arrived in Asia, with virtually all coins shipped there subsequently melted in mints such as that at Bombay or by private smelters.<p>Only marginally less rare than the highly prized Civil War era dates, and also the 1866 and 1867, the 1869 has an extant population of only 300 to 500 coins in all grades. Opportunities like this do not come along all that often, as astute Liberty Seated dollar collectors know all too well.