The Rare Liberty Seated Silver Dollar

The Liberty Seated Silver dollar is one of those silver coins that is rare and valuable because of the scarcity and mintage of the coin. This silver dollar is also valuable because of the mystery of several reports of minted coins that have never surfaced and of the proof mintage coins (Coins that are almost if not perfect) that have shown up.

The Liberty Seated Silver dollar was minted from 1836 to 1873. The design of this coin was changed several times during its mintage which also explains the value and scarcity of the coin. From 1836 to 1839 the one type of design was established but in its first year there was only sixteen hundred coins minted and in the years from 1838 to 1839 there were only four hundred plus coins of mint proof found. No regular coins have been found.

The Liberty Seated dollar was redesigned with no motto from the years of 1840 to 1866. There are several mintages that are extremely rare. For example in 1851 there has been only one unique 1851-O (New Orleans Mint) Liberty Seated Silver dollar found. Another example is the 1858 mintage where only three hundred proof coins were ever known to have been minted. Where as in other years such as 1857 there were ninety-four thousand coins minted with 50 proof-like coins found to exist.

The Liberty Seated dollar went through another change with the addition of a motto and this was added from 1866 to 1873. The rarest of these coins were minted during these years and a mystery was also created here. The rare 1870-S mintage coins were created and there are only twelve known examples made. The mystery for these years for the Liberty Seated Silver dollar was several mint reports that there were seven hundred coins were made for 1873-S but none have ever been found or none are known to exist.

For some of the years one can purchase these well designed coins for a price but others are not to be found except for a hefty price in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. What help with the pricing are the proof-like coins that were minted and kept in excellent condition by the mint or owners of the coins.

The Liberty Seated Silver dollar is one of the most beautiful coins designed and because of the scarcity of certain mint year coins these coins are very rare and expensive. Everybody also likes a mystery where treasure is concerned and the several mint reports of coins that were minted but never found brings treasure hunting to mind.