The Liberty Seated series silver dollar is impossible to complete in MS condition due to very small mintages and low survival rates. The series began as a slight variation on Christian Gobrecht’s original obverse design. The original reverse of Gobrecht’s soaring eagle was replaced by a modified design of John Reich’s herald eagle, first used on coins in 1807.

Robert Ball Hughes modified Gobrecht’s original obverse creation into the “name of decency”. He cut out part of his rock seat, made the liberty lettering on his shield more legible, and added more pleats to his left sleeve. He also added 13 stars to the obverse instead of placing them on the reverse.

It was initially minted in Philadelphia, then New Orleans in 1846. The Liberty Seated was the last silver dollar minted before the Coinage Act of 1873. The Coinage Act of 1873 stopped production of silver dollars for domestic use and started the use of silver Dollar exchange for foreign trade.

The Coinage Act also ended the ability of private citizens to mint their personal silver or gold into legal tender. The main source of silver before 1870 was from private individuals, and not much silver was normally brought in for coinage.

By 1859, there was now a much better supply of silver from the Comstock Lode, therefore production of Liberty Seated dollars increased late in the series in 1871 and 1872. The Trade Dollar filled the gap between the Liberty Seated and the silver dollar. Morgan. .

The total output of the entire Liberty Seated Dollar business strike is 6,487,747. The Philadelphia Mint produced 5,465,463 of these coins. In fact, during 1871 and 1872, the Philadelphia Mint minted a total of 2,179,300 coins, making them the most “common” in the series.

In 1851 and 1852, the Philadelphia Mint produced a total of only 2,400 coins. The branch mints only struck Liberty Seated silver dollars for four years each, early in production in New Orleans and late in production in San Francisco and Carson City.

The New Orleans mint reached a total of only 875,000 of these dollars. The New Orleans pieces have by far the highest mint state survival rates of the entire series due to the 1962-64 US Treasury issue.

Between one and three sealed bags of fresh 1,000 mint dollars from 1859-O and 1860-O are believed to have been found among the bags of Morgan and Peace silver dollars sold to the public during the 1960s.

The mintage of the 1870-S seated dollar is unknown. Estimates range from 25 to 300 pieces. Today’s confirmed population is only a dozen specimens. In fact, the best known 1870-S specimen is MS-62. 1870-S is considered the king of the Liberty Seated series.

1866 was the first year that US coins began adding the inscription “IN GOD WE TRUST.” This date is actually more common in the MS condition than many previous dates.

The Carson City Mint produced a total of just 18,584 Liberty Seated dollars during its four years of production. The 1870-CC accounts for 63% of the total mintage, making it the most “common” of the Carson City produced in this series of silver dollars. “A few” examples of MS have appeared.

The 1873-CC is the second rare date of the 1870-S with a total mintage of 2300 and a single MS-64 was found. Because this series contains so many “caps” and is much more expensive to acquire than either the Morgan or Peace series, the Liberty Seated series has unfortunately not had much collector interest.