1867-S 50C Liberty Seated Half Dollar NGC MS62

This 1867-S Seated Half is a greater rarity than the numbers suggest. Please see below for details.

NGC Coin Explorer tells us, “This was a fairly high mintage issue for the period, and it's … common across all circulated grades,” while Ron Guth of PCGS Coinfacts writes, “The 1867-S Half Dollar is fairly common in most grades up to Mint State …” However, the numbers—and research—tell us quite a different story. NGC has graded 6 pieces as MS62 with 11 finer. Collectors Universe prices this issue in MS62 at $3,000.00. The total number of examples of the 1867-S Seated Liberty half dollar graded by NGC is 142, while PCGS has graded 298 examples. That totals 440. If this issue is “fairly common,” shouldn’t there be more than 440 graded original specimens out of the mintage of 1,196,000?

The ’Empress of China’ was the first ship engaged in the U.S.-China trade starting in 1784. Evidence tells us that similar ships carried Seated Liberty half dollars to China from San Francisco.

Writing in Numismatic News (“Few chase after seated half dollars” June 11, 2011), Paul M. Green discusses the 1996 Superior sale of the Irving Goodman Seated Liberty half dollars. Green writes, “This collection featured a wide range of half dollar dates purchased in Hong Kong and a number were chopmarked, which is clear proof they were in China. San Francisco dates from the 1860s were especially numerous …. The clear suggestion is that long before the Trade dollar, Seated Liberty half dollars were being sent to China and that sort of export use may help to explain why half dollar mintages during the period remained higher than other silver denominations.”

Seated Liberty half dollar specialist Bill Bugert writes, “Chopmarks can be  … found stamped into Liberty Seated half dollars. The dates most often seen are the early to mid-1860s from the San Francisco Branch Mint.”