1861 Liberty Seated Silver Dollar. Proof-63 Cameo (PCGS).Vivid orange-gold and deep blue album toning rings the peripheries of this beautiful, boldly cameoed specimen. Although a mintage of 1,000 Proofs is recorded for this issue, the number of survivors suggests that only a few hundred were actually sold to contemporary collectors. The Mint had only just begun marketing Proof coinage to collectors a few years before, and its staff was still trying to match mintages with actual demand. Additionally, the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 meant that the focus of Americans in the North -- where virtually all collectors were located at that time -- soon shifted to more significant matters than numismatics. With most examples struck melted or later placed into circulation at a later date, the 1861 is the rarest Proof silver dollar of its decade.From the Magnolia Collection. Earlier from our sale of the Collection of a New York Dentist, October 2014, lot 156.
