1869 $1 MS(PCGS#6962)

June 2023 U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

3206

等级

MS63

价格

23,729

详细说明

1869 Liberty Seated Silver Dollar. OC-7. Rarity-4-. MS-63 (NGC). This lightly toned, predominantly silver-gray example exhibits an intermingling of pretty copper-rose iridescence. Lustrous and satiny with a bold to sharp strike throughout. The 1869, of which 423,700 pieces were produced, is the first high mintage issue in the circulation strike Liberty Seated dollar series since 1860. Opinions differ, however, as to the why of this sudden increase. Two opposing views are presented by Q. David Bowers in his 1993 Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia: [John M.] Willem states that the Mexican peso fell out of favor with Chinese merchants (due to a new tax in Mexico), and that the large business [sic] strike coinage of Liberty Seated dollars from 1869 onward was accomplished to provide coins for export to take advantage of the situation. However, opinions differ on this (see immediately below). The following is by R.W. Julian: The heavy coinage of silver dollars in the late 1860s can be shown to be the result of another imbalance in trade for silver. Prior to about 1868 the U.S. usually exported more silver than it produced and imported and there was little need for a dollar coinage. After that time, however, there was no other place for the excess silver to go and it was therefore coined into dollars, even though they did not circulate. It was a practical way to store silver with a readily known and guaranteed value. That some of these dollars did go to the Orient I again have no doubt, but I think that there was less than 25,000 annually and perhaps considerably less considering the ready availability of silver ingots in any purity desired. In your cataloger's (JLA's) opinion, both increased domestic production at the Comstock and the more favorable position of the U.S. silver dollar relative to the Mexican dollar both played a role in the trend toward higher Liberty Seated dollar coinage through early 1873. Given that the 1869 is scarce to rare in all grades, large numbers of these coins were undoubtedly shipped to the Orient, where they were melted. Other scholars agree with this usage, such as Hepburn in History of Currency in the United States, who states that the increase in silver dollar coinage from 1868 to 1872 was "chiefly due to the rich discoveries of Nevada" and, more to the point, that "....practically all were exported." This is certainly one of the few Mint State 1869 silver dollars that has passed through our hands in recent memory, and as a conditionally rare Choice example it represents a particularly important find for the astute silver dollar collector. NGC Census: 11; 13 finer (MS-65 finest). PCGS# 6962. NGC ID: 24ZC. Click here for certification details from NGC.