1871

The 1871 Seated Liberty Dollar runs to 1,074,760 pieces at the Philadelphia Mint, the largest single-year mintage of the entire Seated Liberty Dollar series and a sharp increase from the 416,000-piece 1870 production. The 1871 carries the standard Christian Gobrecht obverse and the With Motto reverse that defines the Type 2 era from 1866 through 1873. The dramatic production increase reflects elevated post-war silver-bullion deposits from western mining operations including the Comstock Lode flow that overwhelmed Treasury reserves and drove silver-dollar coinage to record volumes in the closing years of the Seated Dollar series.

Strike quality on the 1871 is generally above average for the date, with Liberty's head, the seated figure's drapery, and the eagle's central feathers coming up cleanly on most early-die-state coins. Most surviving 1871 Seated Dollars grade VF to AU from circulation in the early 1870s, with PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC populations clustering at EF and AU. Mint State examples are scarce above MS62 and condition rare at MS65 and above. The 1871 represents the most available Seated Dollar of the entire series in mid-grade across the modern collector market.

The 1871 is a regular common date and the standard recommendation for collectors targeting a single late-Seated Dollar at minimum cost or building a type-set example. Pricing trades at the lowest level of the entire Seated Dollar series at most grades, reflecting the abundant survival from the peak-mintage year. The 1871 pairs with the 1872 and 1873 as the matched closing-year Philadelphia trio of the Seated Dollar series before the Coinage Act of February 12, 1873 ended silver-dollar production in favor of the new Trade Dollar. Authentication concerns center on cleaning, polishing, and rim damage from circulation; certified slabs from PCGS or NGC are the standard purchase route at higher grades. For the 1873 Coinage Act context and the broader late-Seated Dollar production history, see the Seated Liberty Dollar series history.