Collector's Key Unlock Your Collection
Log In Join Free

Seated Liberty Dollars

Published October 4, 2025

Dollars

Coin Design History

Seated Liberty Dollars (1840–1873)

Collectors Key Editorial  •  Dollar Series
Author NameChris D.Date PublishedMarch 19, 2026 DenominationDollar Years Issued1840–1873 DesignerChristian Gobrecht Composition90% Silver, 10% Copper Weight26.73 grams (412.5 grains) Diameter38.1 mm EdgeReeded MintsPhiladelphia (no mark), New Orleans (O), San Francisco (S), Carson City (CC) TypesNo Motto (1840–1865); With Motto (1866–1873)

The Seated Liberty Obverse Carried Over From the Gobrecht Dollar; the Soaring Eagle Did Not

When the Seated Liberty dollar entered regular production in 1840, it retained the Gobrecht obverse in a slightly modified form: Liberty seated on a rock, a shield inscribed LIBERTY beside her, 13 stars around the border, the date below. What changed was the reverse. The soaring eagle that Titian Peale had designed for the Gobrecht dollar was set aside in favor of a heraldic eagle derived from a design by John Reich first used on silver coins in 1807. The new reverse eagle holds arrows and an olive branch, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA arcs above, and the denomination ONE DOL. below. A shield covers the eagle's breast. Pairing Gobrecht's Liberty with Reich's eagle gave the new dollar a more formal look than its Gobrecht predecessor, and a design better suited to the sustained production demands of a major denomination. The same obverse and reverse template would serve, with minor modifications, for the entire run from 1840 to 1873.1

The series divides cleanly into two types at 1866. The No Motto type (1840-1865) carries no religious inscription on the reverse. Following the advocacy of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, and after the motto appeared first on the two-cent piece, Congress authorized IN GOD WE TRUST on silver and gold coins; it was added to the Seated Liberty dollar from 1866 through the end of the series in 1873. The motto appears on a ribbon above the eagle. Both types are approximately equivalent in overall scarcity and price at comparable grades.2

The Dollar Was Struck Every Year From 1840 to 1873 and Seldom Circulated

The Seated Liberty dollar had a chronic problem: it rarely circulated. Gold from the California rushes lowered the market price of gold relative to silver, making silver dollars worth slightly more than their face value in gold, which sent them into vaults, hoards, and the export trade rather than daily commerce. The Civil War suspended specie payments entirely from late 1861 onward, and greenback paper currency handled most transactions; silver coins disappeared from everyday use for the duration. Coinage continued at the Philadelphia Mint throughout, and at New Orleans in 1846 and 1850 and again in 1859-1860; the 1859 and 1860 dollars from Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco were struck mainly for export to China. San Francisco struck its first 20,000 dollars in 1859; the Comstock Lode was discovered that year, but its boom in silver output came later. Even after the resumption of specie payments in 1879, the dollar's role in daily commerce had been permanently diminished. A coin series that ran from 1840 to 1873 produced roughly a third of its total output in just two years, 1871 and 1872.3

The Carson City Issues Are Four Dates, Low Mintages, and Among the Most Pursued Short Sets in the Series

The Carson City Mint opened in 1870, positioned to process silver from Nevada's Comstock Lode, and the Seated Liberty dollar was the first coin it struck: 2,303 pieces paid to a depositor on February 11, 1870. The CC issues run only four dates, 1870 through 1873, with combined production of fewer than 19,300 coins across all four years. The 1871-CC, 1872-CC and 1873-CC are rare in any grade and the 1870-CC, with several hundred survivors, is scarce; Mint State examples are exceptional rarities for all four dates and approach impossible at Gem (Mint State 65 or finer) levels. The 1873-CC, the last Carson City issue before the Coinage Act of 1873 ended the denomination, had a mintage of 2,300; many numismatists believe most were melted once the dollar was discontinued, and only a small fraction survive. Carson City dollar collecting is an advanced specialty with a dedicated following that treats the four-coin set as one of the prestige goals of the broader series.4

The 1870-S Has 12 Known Survivors and No Official Mint Record

The most famous coin in the series has no documented production. Official Mint records do not record any silver dollars struck at San Francisco in 1870. Newspaper reports of the ceremony on May 25, 1870 said the cornerstone of the new San Francisco Mint held one coin of each denomination struck at the San Francisco Branch Mint that year, and numismatists have long assumed an 1870-S dollar was among them. The existence of approximately 12 known examples, some in circulated grades indicating actual use rather than ceremonial preservation, indicates that additional coins were struck and released or distributed informally. The full circumstances have never been established from surviving documentation.5

The 12 known survivors span a wide range of grades, from pieces showing significant wear to the single finest known, a PCGS Mint State 62, which is the only Mint State example documented. The coin, probably from the collection of Colonel E. H. R. Green and later owned by James A. Stack, sold at Stack's, May 2003, Rudolph Collection, lot 2136, for $1,092,500. Examples reach auction only occasionally, sometimes with several years between appearances. Because so few exist, the 1870-S is out of reach for most collectors assembling a date-and-mint set. The Old San Francisco Mint at Fifth and Mission Streets, the building whose cornerstone was laid at the May 1870 ceremony, still stands today as a National Historic Landmark, and the cornerstone and its contents have never been located.6

Every year from 1840 to 1873, the Mint produced Seated Liberty dollars; almost every year, most of those coins went into vaults, export, or hoards rather than cash registers and payrolls. For the collector, that history shows up directly: circulated examples are scarce, uncirculated 1859-O, 1860-O and 1871 dollars from the Treasury releases of 1962 to 1964 are relatively plentiful, the 1870-S exists with no record of its striking, and the four Carson City dates record a mint working at the western edge of the country with small equipment and enormous raw material.

Building the Set

A type set requires two coins: one No Motto (1840-1865) and one With Motto (1866-1873). For the No Motto type, the most practical choices are the New Orleans issues of 1859 and 1860, the most plentiful No Motto dates in Mint State thanks to the Treasury releases of 1962 to 1964, or the 1860 Philadelphia issue. For the With Motto type, the high-mintage Philadelphia issues of 1871 and 1872 are the standard entry points. A complete date-and-mint set is achievable except for the 1870-S, which few collectors can obtain; assembling even the achievable dates in Very Fine through Extremely Fine requires sustained search because original, problem-free examples with undamaged surfaces are genuinely hard to locate throughout the series. The Carson City four-coin set is a recognized subspecialty. The controlling specialist references are Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia, 2 vols. (Wolfeboro, NH: Bowers and Merena Galleries, 1993), and Bowers, Q. David, A Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coins (Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2016).7

Notes

  1. The transition from the Gobrecht flying eagle to the heraldic reverse based on Reich's 1807 design; the obverse description (seated Liberty, LIBERTY shield, 13 stars, date below); the reverse description (heraldic eagle with shield, arrows and olive branch, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ONE DOL.); and the use of both designs through 1873 are from Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia, 2 vols. (Wolfeboro, NH: Bowers and Merena Galleries, 1993), and Bowers, Q. David, A Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coins (Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2016).
  2. The No Motto type (1840-1865) and With Motto type (1866-1873); Treasury Secretary Chase's advocacy; the motto's prior appearance on the two-cent piece; the congressional authorization for IN GOD WE TRUST on silver and gold coins; and its placement on a ribbon above the eagle are from Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage (New York: Arco Publishing, 1966), and Bowers, A Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coins. The approximate equivalence of both types in overall scarcity is from the Greysheet Seated Liberty dollar series description (greysheet.com).
  3. The chronic absence of Seated Liberty dollars from everyday commerce; the fall in gold's value relative to silver after the California gold rush, which made silver coins worth more as bullion than as money; the Civil War suspension of specie payments from December 1861; the mint distribution: Philadelphia throughout, New Orleans 1846, 1850, 1859 and 1860, San Francisco from 1859; the 1859-S mintage of 20,000 and the later timing of the Comstock Lode's boom; the export of the 1859 and 1860 coinages to China; and the concentration of production in 1871 and 1872 are from Bowers, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars, and Taxay, U.S. Mint and Coinage.
  4. The Carson City Mint's opening in 1870 to process Comstock Lode silver; the first Seated Liberty dollar delivery of 2,303 pieces on February 11, 1870; the four CC dates (1870-1873) with combined production of fewer than 19,300 coins (taking the 1870-CC at 12,462); the rarity of the 1871-CC, 1872-CC and 1873-CC and the scarcity of the 1870-CC, with several hundred survivors; the exceptional rarity in Mint State; and the 1873-CC mintage of 2,300 and the belief that most were melted after the Coinage Act of 1873 ended the denomination are from Bowers, Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coins, and the PCGS CoinFacts and Stack's Bowers entries for the 1870-CC and 1873-CC.
  5. The absence of any official Mint record for 1870-S dollar production; the newspaper reports of the May 25, 1870 ceremony describing one coin of each denomination struck at San Francisco that year placed in the new Mint's cornerstone; the existence of approximately 12 known survivors, some in circulated grades indicating actual use; and the inability to establish the full circumstances from surviving documentation are from Bowers, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars; Bowers, Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coins; and Kelly, Richard G., and Oliver, Nancy Y., letter in The E-Sylum, vol. 7, no. 16 (2004), coinbooks.org/esylum_v07n16a14.html.
  6. The 12 known survivors; the PCGS Mint State 62 as the only Mint State example and finest known; its pedigree, probably from Colonel E. H. R. Green, then James A. Stack; its sale at Stack's, May 2003, Rudolph Collection, lot 2136, $1,092,500; the rarity of the 1870-S within the date-and-mint set; and the cornerstone contents never having been recovered are from the PCGS CoinFacts entry for the 1870-S dollar (PCGS #6965), the PCGS Set Registry Liberty Seated Dollars Basic Set, and Bowers, Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coins. The National Historic Landmark designation of the Old San Francisco Mint (1961) is from the National Park Service.
  7. The type set recommendation (No Motto: 1859-O or 1860-O, or the 1860 Philadelphia issue; With Motto: 1871 or 1872 Philadelphia); the date-and-mint set and the difficulty of the 1870-S; the Carson City four-coin subspecialty; the difficulty of finding problem-free original surfaces throughout the series; and the primary references are from Bowers, A Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coins (Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2016), and Bowers, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia, 2 vols. (Wolfeboro, NH: Bowers and Merena Galleries, 1993). The Mint State availability of the 1859-O and 1860-O from the Treasury releases of 1962 to 1964 is from the PCGS CoinFacts entry for the 1860-O dollar.

Ready to start tracking your finds? Create a free account and log every coin in your collection, all in one place.