1866 $1 Motto MS(PCGS#6959)
1866 $1 Motto MS (PCGS#6959)
Spring 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins
- 拍卖行
- Stack's Bowers
- 批号
- 4244
- 等级
- MS63
- 价格
- 44,099
- 详细说明
- Vivid iridescent undertones of golden-olive, champagne-apricot and powder blue enhance otherwise bold toning in charcoal and steely-olive. Popular as the first Liberty Seated dollar of the With Motto design type, the circulation strike 1866 has a mintage of just 48,900 pieces. The majority of these were lost through melting after use in the export trade with the Orient. Circulated survivors, of which there are only 500 to 1,000 in all grades, represent coins returned to the United States after export to Europe or Latin America, and which subsequently escaped melting when redeemed by the Treasury Department in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<p>A distinction needs to be drawn between circulated examples and Mint State survivors such as this. The latter almost always represent coins obtained directly from the Mint in the year of issue. As R.W. Julian (quoted in Bowers, 1993) explains:<p><em>Some of the silver dollars struck at Philadelphia in the 1850s were coined on government account or, to be more precise, that of Director James Ross Snowden. These were made to satisfy the normal requests for such coins by the public for use as birthday presents and the like. Perhaps a few hundred coins per year left the Mint for this reason, almost all to residents in and around Philadelphia. This may account for the few Uncirculated coins in existence today.</em><p>In your cataloger's (JLA) opinion, this practice extended throughout the entire span of the Liberty Seated dollar series, from 1840 to 1873, and not just during Snowden's tenure. It would certainly explain the existence and preservation of this lovely Choice Mint State 1866, especially since there were no known hoards for this issue like there were for the 1859-O and 1860-O, many Mint State examples of which were distributed by the Treasury Department during the early 1960s. Rare at all levels of uncirculated preservation, the inclusion of a Mint State 1866 such as this is a strong indication of a premium Liberty Seated dollar cabinet.