Seated Liberty n With Motto Silver Dollars 1866-1873 Coin

As war clouds gathered and the residents raced impulsive near civil war, known sentiment became increasingly philosophical. In 1861, reflecting this communal mood, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase detained leading a suggestion from a Pennsylvania minister that the Mint ought to incorporate recognition of the deity on our coins. In a letter to James Pollock, Director of the Mint, Chase wrote: "The hope of our people in God should be stated on our general coins. You will produce a crest to be ready lacking unnecessary falter with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest terms promising this free recognition."

Almost immediately, Pollock struck a few patterns and forwarded them to Chase. In his accompanying letter, Pollock asserted that the first suggestion for this spiritual motto, "Our Trust is in God," had too many characters to fit comfortably. The Mint Director recommended "God Our Trust" since he felt it accepted the same idea and was more concise. He also chosen the motto to be placed on the back above the eagle, within a scroll or ribbon machine as artistic scenery.

Pattern half dollars and eagles square 1861 and 1862 have the lexis GOD OUR TRUST. From 1863 through 1865, additional patterns were made with GOD OUR TRUST, GOD AND OUR COUNTRY, and IN GOD WE TRUST.

It was IN GOD WE TRUST that Secretary Chase finally usual in 1864. It first appeared on the two-cent part in that year and then later the Shield nickel in 1866. Patterns dated 1865 with IN GOD WE TRUST were made of the twofold eagle, eagle, the eagle and the silver house, half buck and buck. Ultimately, the Mint Act of March 3, 1865 provided the authorization for use of the motto on the usual silver and gold issues.

The Seated Liberty bucked of 1866, alike to earlier issues except for the addition of the motto, was based on the creative devise by Christian Gobrecht, the past Chief Engraver of the Mint. First used on usual announce coins with the 1837 dime, it was practical to the buck in 1840.

The intend depicts Liberty seated on a boulder. She is property a post in her left hand topped with a liberty cap. With her right hand she supports the shelter of the union adorned with the word LIBERTY. Thirteen stars surround the cost. The converse skin an eagle with outstretched wings and the Union armor on its breast. The eagle is covetous an olive stem and three arrows. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA appears in a semicircle around the eagle, and the denomination ONE DOL. Appears below. If a particular coin has a mintmark, it is soon under the eagle.

The conceive has athletic symbolism. With the use of the liberty cap, it declares autonomy. The union shielded is symbolic of the unity of the homeland. In the throes of the nastiest conflagration this country ever experienced, it was physical for the people of the mid-19th century to point to the deity for help and guidance. Placing a religious sentiment on something as intimate as a coin was the equivalent of a national prayer.

The motto has become very much a part of the American mind. This was evident when the double eagle and eagle were issued without the motto in 1907. It caused a burning public controversy, and Congress planned the motto restored in 1908.

Although "With Motto" buck mintages were small, the coins were well used by the public. The accounts for the small number of uncirculated pieces that live. Only about 3.6 million pieces were minted for circulation. The womanhood was made at the Philadelphia Mint with only two domain mints producing the With Motto variety.

Of the Carson City Mint issues of 1870, '71, '72 and '73, the 1870-CC is the easiest to locate. There are also three San Francisco issues. The 1870-S is a foremost scarcity, and the 1873-S, with a reported mintage of 700, is strange in any collection. That foliage the 1872-S as the only collectable With Motto buck from that mint. The Philadelphia issues of 1871 and 1872 are the dates most regularly seen and are popularly composed as mode examples.

There are 15 customary and eight resistant issues of the Seated Liberty With Motto Dollar. An absolute of 6,060 proofs were coined, and these hang over each meeting from 1866 through 1873.

When grading mint pomp pieces, footnote that this coin regularly comes with some parts of the outline softly struck and may have many "bag" letters and abrasions. Check the high points of Liberty's right leg and breast and the pelt above her eye for signs of erode. Seating Liberty dollars may be seen with a great glaze that can array from lightly spotty to black. Heavily toned specimens should be warily evaluated to affect whether evidence of circulation is buried underneath.

Numismatists usually collect this coin as a "form," because it is obstinate to find affordable examples of many dates in this chain. A crucial collection would have an example of the No Motto and With Motto types. One could also enter an exclusive, but obtainable, Gobrecht sample or circulation flow of 1836-1839. Nevertheless no subject which type, grade or date you own, any Seated Liberty cash is a numismatic treasure.

In February, 1873 Congress passed the Coinage Act later known as "The Crime of '73," which effectively demonetized silver and put the populace on a gold ensign. It would fuel intense meditate for the next district century. While the Act created a new trade dough for use in import with the Far East, it abolished the even issue silver dollar, along with the two-cent example, the silver trime and the the dime. The standard silvered dollar would not gain awaiting 1878, when it reappeared with a new design named for its initiator, Chief Engraver George T. Morgan.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 oz pure silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: American Numismatic Association, Selections from The Numismatist: United States Paper Money, Tokens, Medals and Miscellaneous, Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, WI, 1960. Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Judd, J. Hewitt M.D., United States Pattern, Experimental and Trial Pieces, 7th Edition, A. Kosoff, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1982. White, Weimar W. The Liberty Seated Dollar 1840-1873, Sanford J. Durst, Long Island City, 1985. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Seated Liberty/No Motto Silver Dollars 1840-1873

The year was 1840. Martin Van Buren was completing a Presidential word ruined by terrible financial depression. This era, called the Hard Times, resulted from time of reckless Western land speculation and the evolution of unregulated banks issuing a flood of unsecured paper money. The prolonged depression ravished America's agriculture and trade and saw hundreds of thousands starving and unemployed.

Inheriting from President Andrew Jackson was the Van Buren Administration's loyalty in "hard money"- silver and gold-as the only unfailing warehouse of assess in compare to shaky thanks and worthless paper money. Expressing this hard money outlook, the Mint strove from 1836 to start a new circulating silver cash. No cash coin had appeared for circulation since 1804, when the last of the 1803-square Draped Bust dollars were released.

Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson viewed the new money as the pinnacle of America's silver penny. After all, it was a fortunate worker who made even four dollars for a workweek of 76 to 80 hours of unremitting slog in this harsh era. A silver bucked was indeed a keep of wealth to millions of impoverished running-classify Americans.

An admirer of the seated Britannia on British copper penny, Patterson supposed that a seated female character would be just as "emblematic of liberty" as the heads and busts adorning the residents's money. He engaged the great study musician Thomas Sully to make sketching for his seated Liberty. Sully floating her on a sway in Grecian robes, left arm supporting a Union guard with a scroll adorned LIBERTY. Her right arm was raised and detained a staff topped with a small Liberty Cap. The Mint's assistant engraver, Christian Gobrecht, adapted the Sully sketches to bas-relief art fitting for money. The effect was the Seated Liberty create worn at one time or another on half dimes, dimes, 20-cent pieces, quarters, half dollars and dollars from 1836 through 1891.

As reworked by Gobrecht and Robert Ball Hughes, Liberty emerged with a rounded president and her dangling right arm appearing immensely long, her left patently shorter. Pattern obverses of 1836 and 1839 showed no frontage stars but placed the musician's signature in the turf or on the base. Gobrecht's novel reverses of 1836-1839 open a magnificent snatched eagle in a shining or patent sky. Unfortunately, the "No Motto" silver money of 1840-1865 deleted the innovative flying eagle, substituting the unimaginative but relaxed "sandwich lodge" bird with dropped wings and a safeguard on its breast. Liberty had no artist's signature and sat coyly in a crowd of 13 stars with the court placed below. The coins of 1840-65 do not have the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on the converse.

Mintages were commonly small by recent standards, adding only 2,895,673 coins for the cycle. The Philadelphia Minted (no mintmark) struck all dates from 1840 to 1865 inclusive; New Orleans (O), struck dollars square 1846, 1850, 1859 and 1860; the San Francisco Mint (S), struck this category money only in 1859. Mintmarks are located under the lime sphere, between the eagle's feet on the rearrange.

Tiny figures of proofs were struck of most early Philadelphia dates, but they are of great shortage. Numbers struck are not known with certainty and are gone from general handbook books. Proofs were first made for public selling in 1858 when perhaps 80 pieces were struck; later resistant mintages never exceeded 1,000 excluding for 1860, when 1,330 pieces were coined. Proof restrikes were made of the 1851 and 1852 coins. The last No Motto meeting was 1865, with 46,500 company strikes and 500 proofs made. Two 1866-dated No Motto coins are known, but these "fantasy pieces" were made somewhat later for auction to wealthy collectors. In recent years, the reality of a sole resilient 1851-O specimen has come to light, however researchers postulate that this was accidentally made by the Philadelphia "Midnight Minters," (possibly engraver George Eckfeldt and his son, Mint night watchman Theodore). In their swiftness clandestinely to sell the popular 1851 arise, they overstruck a vacant New Orleans Mint cash, the crushed 'O' mintmark still being quietly visible.

Seated dollars never circulated to any great point in the East, although facts were in daily use west of the Mississippi. The Civil War advanced restricted their circulation as the numbers of subject strikes and proofs struck contracted sharply. Bullion buyers snapped up most new silver coins for export as firmly as they were made. These coins were shipped overseas for melting, and the only U.S. Mint result most citizens saw were the new figurine cents. Coin collectors derided the Mint as "Uncle Sam's copperhead factory."

These large silver coins had some odd striking characteristics. The actual view of Liberty's lead may basis feeble detail even on perfect specimens. The fluff on the eagle's leg and the claws may also show mark of weak beat. Wear first appears on Liberty's thigh, right breast and the top of her precede. The tops of the eagle's wings chart. Because of their size and mass, uncirculated coins stored in Mint bags will show scattered link symbols. Proofs regularly are hairlined from the careless conduct of early non-numismatic owners or will show evidence of cleaning by old-time collectors.

Seating Liberty dollars have gained popularity with the utter antenna kinship since the 1970's, when the great U.S. Treasury reserve of silver dollars was liquidated, though few of them early type were found. To collectors more easy with Morgan and Peace dollars issued in the tens of millions, these formerly coins may appear scarce and vague, and indeed they are. Only a small marginal of all Seated Liberty dollars struck remain in existence today. Researcher Weimar W. White estimated that just a division continue-even in low grades.

Assembling an extensive date and mint set in reduce circulated grades is within reason, given patience and perseverance. A total set in mint kingdom will be costly, especially for examples of the 1850-O, 1851, 1852 and 1859-S. A complete run of proofs is a theoretically viable goal but one which will be unrealistic for any but the best-financed antenna.

The Seated Liberty series endless from 1866 to 1873 with the transpose motto IN GOD WE TRUST. The coinage acted of Feb. 12, 1873 ended the silver buck and abolished the official tender condition of all silver dollars struck from 1794 to 1873. This is the law later savagely denounced by the vocal partisans of released and unlimited coinage of silver as the "Crime of '73." Legal tender category was restored to the colors silver dollar under the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which prompted the coining of millions of Morgan Dollars.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 oz untainted silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, David T. DeLorey, Thomas K. And Reed, P. Bradley, Coin World Comprehensive Catalog & Encyclopedia of United States Coins, New York, World Almanac-Pharos Books, 1990. Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States, Bowers & Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. White, Weimar W. The Liberty Seated Dollar 1840-1873, New York, Sanford J. Durst, 1985.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.