1870-S Seated Liberty Dollar

A coin with no paperwork

The Seated Liberty dollar, designed by Christian Gobrecht, was struck from 1840 to 1873. It was a large silver coin, 26.73 grams of 90 percent silver, and saw little use in daily commerce at home; many were exported or sent west and to Asia. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added in 1866. The Coinage Act of 1873 ended the series.

In 1870 the San Francisco Mint was preparing to lay the cornerstone of a new building, the second San Francisco Mint, designed by Alfred B. Mullett. It had been known for months that a time capsule in the cornerstone would hold a complete set of the year's coins. The 1870 dies arrived from Philadelphia in December 1869, but there was no obverse die for the silver dollar.

Researchers Nancy Oliver and Richard Kelly, writing in The Numismatist in May 2005, found evidence of a close working relationship between San Francisco Mint Superintendent A.H. LaGrange and Carson City Mint Superintendent Abraham Curry. They theorized that LaGrange asked Curry for an 1870-dated dollar obverse. One telegram survives from Curry to LaGrange, dated March 2, 1870, thanking him for "silver dollar radius plates." The cornerstone was laid on May 25, 1870.

No Mint record documents any 1870-S dollars. Mint records from the era were later destroyed in a cost-cutting measure, so the full story may never be known. The commonly cited number struck is 12; one major reference lists the mintage as 15. Neither figure has a primary source.

A die that worked at two mints

In the spring of 2017 the variety researchers Dick Osburn and Brian Cushing published in the Gobrecht Journal their finding that every known 1870-S dollar was struck from an obverse die previously used at Carson City for the 1870-CC dollar. The die had been polished before use in San Francisco, removing many of its markers, but enough remained for a positive match. To their knowledge, it is the only known example of a die used at two different mints.

The reverse die is unique to 1870-S. Some publications had suggested the S mintmark was engraved by hand into the die; Osburn and Cushing found that it was punched, and in fact punched twice.

The worn condition of most survivors fits the cornerstone story. Most appear to have been kept as souvenirs and carried as pocket pieces by people who were not collectors. One is scratched, one shows a test mark, one is pitted, and another was tooled to remove initials engraved in front of Liberty. Only one is Uncirculated: this coin.

How a secret became a famous rarity

The 1870-S dollar was unknown to collectors for more than forty years. In the winter of 1914 the Wisconsin railroad and mining magnate H.O. Granberg lent one to an American Numismatic Society exhibition, where the catalog described it as "Only specimen known. No record of issue in the mint." The banker Waldo C. Newcomer acquired that coin and showed it at a 1916 convention in Baltimore, where The Numismatist wrote that the variety was being shown "to most of the collectors probably for the first time."

More examples surfaced slowly. The first auction appearance came in 1926, a coin graded Fine with initials cut into it; at its next appearance the initials had been removed. Newcomer's notes from the late 1920s or early 1930s record that he had been offered one in April 1928 for $1,300.

This coin, the finest known, was acquired by the collector James A. Stack in 1944. It was sold with his collection in March 1995 for $462,000, and again at auction on May 14, 2003, when it brought $1,092,500. The specimen was displayed at the 2005 American Numismatic Association convention in San Francisco, the city where it was struck. Variety researchers report that it now resides in the collection of Dell Loy Hansen.

Pedigrees for this coin differ by source. One major grading service says this coin probably belonged to Colonel E.H.R. Green before James A. Stack; the detailed census compiled for a 2016 auction catalog traces Green to other examples, among them the Norweb, Eliasberg and Carter coins, and begins this coin's line with Morton and Joseph Stack ahead of James A. Stack in 1944.

The census of a rarity

The specialists' roster lists nine confirmed examples. In order of grade: the James A. Stack coin (PCGS MS62), the Norweb coin (PCGS AU58), the Eliasberg coin (PCGS AU53), the Ostheimer-Gardner coin (PCGS XF40), the Queller coin (NGC XF40), the Schultz coin (PCGS VF25), the Carter coin (VF), the Eureka coin (Fine to Very Fine, scratched) and the Boyd coin (VF, tooled). A tenth Mint State coin was reportedly examined around 1990 in the hands of a San Francisco-area military officer, descended from a Mint employee's family, but could not be verified. An eleventh is rumored to lie in the cornerstone of the old San Francisco Mint.

Other references give higher counts: one major grading service says 12 known survivors in all grades, and an encyclopedia entry also says twelve. The variety specialists estimate 9 to 11 survivors.

The other examples have their own stories. The Eureka coin was reportedly found by an eighteen-year-old in Eureka, California, before 1922 and kept until the 1970s. The Schultz coin passed through the collection of King Farouk of Egypt and was sold with his Palace Collections in 1954. The Eliasberg coin was bought privately for $1.3 million in February 2008, and the Queller coin, graded XF40, brought $805,000 at auction in April 2008.

Examples reach the market about once every two years on average, though there was no opportunity to buy one at all from 1997 to 2003.

The Granite Lady's secret

The building whose cornerstone may have prompted the coin opened in 1874. It survived the 1906 earthquake and fire while holding about a third of the nation's gold reserves, and is known as the Granite Lady.

The 1870-S dollar belongs to a small group of 1870-S coins that Mint records do not mention at all. The unique 1870-S three-dollar gold piece is another, and so is the 1870-S half dime, which was unknown until 1978. An 1870-S quarter may also have been struck, but none is known.

Among Seated Liberty dollars, the 1870-S ranks first or second in rarity, depending on whether the 1866 No Motto dollar is counted. Most collectors assembling the series can never hope to own one.

The numbers

Mintage

Not recorded by the Mint; commonly said to be 12, and one major reference lists 15

Known survivors

Nine confirmed by variety specialists (estimated 9 to 11); other references say about 12

Weight

26.73 grams

Diameter

38.1 mm

Composition

90% silver, 10% copper

Edge

Reeded

Designer

Christian Gobrecht

Finest known

This coin, PCGS MS62, the only Mint State example confirmed

Timeline

1. 1840

   The Seated Liberty dollar, designed by Christian Gobrecht, enters production.

2. 1866

   IN GOD WE TRUST is added to the dollar.

3. Dec 1869

   The 1870 dies arrive in San Francisco from Philadelphia, without a silver dollar obverse.

4. Mar 2, 1870

   Carson City Superintendent Abraham Curry telegraphs thanks to San Francisco's A.H. LaGrange for "silver dollar radius plates."

5. May 25, 1870

   The cornerstone of the new San Francisco Mint is laid; the 1870-S dollars are believed tied to the ceremony.

6. 1873

   The Coinage Act of 1873 ends the Seated Liberty dollar.

7. 1874

   The second San Francisco Mint opens.

8. 1914

   H.O. Granberg shows an 1870-S dollar at an American Numismatic Society exhibition as the "only specimen known."

9. 1916

   Waldo C. Newcomer exhibits the coin in Baltimore, its first wide notice among collectors.

10. 1926

    First auction appearance of an 1870-S dollar, a Fine example with initials cut into it.

11. 1944

    James A. Stack acquires this coin, the finest known.

12. Mar 1995

    This coin is sold with the James A. Stack collection for $462,000.

13. May 14, 2003

    This coin sells for $1,092,500 at auction.

14. May 2005

    Nancy Oliver and Richard Kelly publish "The Saga of the 1870-S Silver Dollar" in The Numismatist.

15. 2005

    This coin is displayed at the ANA convention in San Francisco.

16. Feb 2008

    The Eliasberg example, AU53, is bought privately for $1.3 million.

17. Apr 2008

    The Queller example, XF40, sells at auction for $805,000.

18. 2017

    Osburn and Cushing show that the 1870-S obverse die was first used at Carson City.

The world in 1870

• Jan 3, 1870

  Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins in New York City.

• Jan 10, 1870

  John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

• Feb 3, 1870

  The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified.

• Feb 25, 1870

  Hiram Rhodes Revels is sworn into the U.S. Senate.

• Apr 13, 1870

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art is established in New York City.

• Jun 22, 1870

  Congress creates the U.S. Department of Justice.

• Jul 19, 1870

  France declares war on Prussia.

• Sep 20, 1870

  The capture of Rome completes the unification of Italy.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1870-S Seated Liberty Dollar is number 25 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (18 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• No Mint record shows that any 1870-S dollars were struck.
• Every known 1870-S dollar came from an obverse die first used at the Carson City Mint, the only known case of one die serving two mints.
• One example may still be sealed inside the cornerstone of the old San Francisco Mint.
• The first 1870-S dollar shown to collectors, in 1914, was billed as the only one known.
• One example passed through the collection of King Farouk of Egypt.
• Another had initials engraved in front of Liberty, later tooled away.