1859-S $1 Liberty Seated Silver Dollar PCGS XF40

Here’s a fascinating relic from the days of the extensive U.S.-China trade of the 19^th century. The entire mintage of 20,000 pieces of the 1859-S dollar was earmarked for shipment to China. However, not all of them ended up there. This offering from AUCM remained stateside. Please see below for photos of a rare 1859-S dollar with Chinese chopmarks. PCGS has graded 45 as XF40 with 142 finer. Collectors Universe prices this issue at $2,500.00 in XF40.

Birth of the 1859-S Liberty Seated Dollar

It was not an easy task to acquire silver coins in San Francisco for the China trade. They had to purchase Mexican Eagle dollars at stiff premiums. For example, the premium on Eagle dollars in San Francisco in 1852 was 5%. The premiums on the Mexican coins were increasing steadily, which frustrated San Francisco merchants in the China trade. That city’s branch mint had opened its doors for business in 1854. Yet despite there being “free coinage” of silver dollars, the mint had no dies for the Liberty Seated dollars on hand. Therefore, no such coins could be produced for the China trade. Merchants needed a respite from high premiums.

Charles H. Hemstead, Superintendent of the San Francisco Mint, had to literally beg for silver dollar dies. On November 18, 1858, he wrote to Mint Director James Ross Snowden, with more than a touch of hyperbole: “we are now attracting to our shores large quantities of silver, in bars, from Mexico, for which we pay in silver coins. By reference to your letter of the 4th of August last, I find that you say that ‘silver deposits may be received, but they are only payable in silver dollars or in fine silver bars.’ We have never received any dies for silver dollars, nor am I aware of the reason why this branch has never made that denomination of coin.”

An extremely rare example of the 1859-S dollar with Chinese chopmarks. Courtesy of the Dan Huntsinger Collection.

In response, Snowden wrote (February 19, 1859), “as the facts stated by you indicate the propriety of the coinage of silver dollars at your branch of the mint, I have caused four pairs of dies of that denomination to be prepared and forwarded to you per express.” That was good timing for the silver merchants of San Francisco, for in 1859 the premium on Mexican Eagle dollars had reached 16%. There were 20,000 standard dollars carrying the ‘S’ mintmark produced with silver provided by the town’s silver merchants. A portion of those 1859-S dollars were shipped off to China.