1861 $1 MS(PCGS#6951)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

6021

Grade

XF45

Price

4,920

Lot Description

OC Die State c/a. Rarity is the order of the day when it comes to this key date Philadelphia Mint Liberty Seated dollar issue, one whose survivors enjoy even stronger demand given that the 1861 is a Civil War issue. This piece has considerable positives, including light to medium reddish-gold patina and much satiny luster. Boldly defined, as well, and while faint hairlines are noted there are no sizeable marks. With 72,000 coins delivered to bullion depositors between January 24 and March 19 - a greater total than that achieved by the Philadelphia Mint for many full years of silver dollar coinage during the 1840s and 1850s - the 1861 was on its way to becoming another relatively high mintage Liberty Seated dollar issue like the 1859 and 1860. The start of the Civil War with the bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12, however, put a sudden end to this short-lived demand that began in 1859. Bullion depositors requested only 5,500 additional coins in 1861, delivered on June 25, for a mintage of 77,500 silver dollars that year. Most of these coins became part of the 1,250,000 silver dollars exported for the China trade in 1859, 1860 and 1861, with only 300 to 500 examples surviving for today's collectors.<p>Numismatists should exercise caution when evaluating the comment often found in the literature that the Mint melted 40,000 silver dollars in 1861 to provide bullion for the heavy subsidiary silver coinages of 1861 and early 1862. This certainly did happen, and R.W. Julian suggests that the total quantity of dollars melted during those two years may be significantly higher. The Mint acquired these coins from New York banks and through the Sub-Treasury in that city, however, and most were earlier-dated silver dollars that had been repatriated from Europe and South America, especially those of the 1840s, but also pieces dated 1850 to 1857. The silver dollars of 1861 would have been paid out to the bullion depositors who requested them, as customary, and were included in the large shipments to China that year, as above.