1849 $1 Liberty Seated Silver Dollar PCGS AU53

Coin is housed in the Exclusive PCGS 35^th Anniversary holder

Here is a rare piece to add to your collection. Out of its mintage of 62,600, there are 53 graded AU53 by PCGS, with 174 finer. Collectors Universe prices this issue at $1,750.00.

Evidence suggests that many of the Liberty Seated dollars, including the 1849, were shipped to China for trade purposes. Evidence includes perhaps a few dozen Liberty Seated dollars with Chinese chopmarks upon them. Also, only 846 total original pieces have been graded in total by PCGS and NGC out of the mintage of 62,600. While this is not a foolproof method to determine the survival rate of an issue, it does give us some indication of rarity.

Economist Simon Newcomb wrote in 1879: "It would probably be safe to assert that ... one half of the citizens of our country, born since 1840, had never seen a United States [Liberty Seated] silver dollar. If we should be mistaken in this; if it should be shown that one half of our people had seen a silver dollar some time in their lives, we could still fall back on the well-known historic fact that the dollar in question was rarely used as money after 1840."

The Second Philadelphia Mint, where this coin was produced in 1849. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.