USA 1 dollar Seated Liberty 1840
USA, Philadelphia
Rarity
Rare
Attributes of Coins
| Region | USA |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 dollar |
| Krause number | KM# 71 |
| Mintage | 61,005 |
| Metal | Silver 0.900 |
| thickness | 2.8 mm |
| diameter | 38.1 mm |
| weight | 26.73 g |
Obverse:
Liberty
Star
Creators:
Christian Gobrecht
LIBERTY
Reverse:
Coat of arms
Creators:
Christian Gobrecht
ONE DOL.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Introduction of Coins
This first year of issue was coined in modest quantity, just 61,000 examples being struck for general circulation, along with five additional pieces reserved for the Assay Commission. Such a small mintage could have been produced in a single day with a single pair of dies, yet no fewer than four die marriages are known for this emission! Each represents single pairings of obverse and reverse dies with no intermingling. It's thus obvious that coinage was effected in a series of small press runs using different die pairs each time. This date has a higher survival rate than is normal for such a small mintage, suggesting that examples were saved as souvenirs of the new type. This is reinforced by the number of Mint State survivors, a few of them being choice, though none have been certified as gems (MS 65 or higher). Due to the use of fresh dies with each press run, Mint State specimens tend to be semi-prooflike, the dies not having time to lose their initial polish. There are differing rarity ratings for each of the four die marriages, with OC-1 being the first coined and the most common, while OC-4 is the last made and also the scarcest. OC-3 and OC-4 both utilized dies that had been used previously for proof strikings.Read More
