1879 Liberty Seated Half Dollar. WB-102. Type II Reverse. MS-65 (PCGS).，A gorgeous Gem with multicolored rainbow peripheral toning around brilliant centers. Fully struck with an otherwise satin finish that reveals modest semi-reflective tendencies in the fields as the surfaces dip into a light. The famous 1879 half dollar inaugurates a run of low mintage circulation strikes that continues through the end of the Liberty Seated series in 1891. When silver and paper money reached parity in the market on April 20, 1876, large quantities of silver coins that had been hoarded since early in the Civil War in the Eastern and Midwestern states returned to circulation. This took the Treasury Department by surprise, its officials having ordered the Mints to increase production beginning in 1875 to guarantee that enough coins were on hand upon the resumption of silver specie payments. By 1878 there was an overabundance of coins, newly minted pieces dated 1875 to 1878 and older pieces that had been hoarded. With little demand for additional half dollars circulation strike mintages fell off markedly beginning in 1879 and remained limited through 1891.<p>The low mintage issues of this era caught the eye of contemporary numismatists, and many pieces were hoarded in the anticipation of the coins being worth a considerable premium. W. Elliott Woodwards September 1885 sale of the Randall Collection, Part II (<em>quoted in Bowers, A Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coins</em>, 2016), includes this comment about a circulation strike 1879 half dollar offered as lot 700:<p><em>"Brilliant Uncirculated; much rarer than Proof. The Mint struck only a few during the latter days of December; nearly all of these were bought on speculation and held for an advance."</em><p>Although interest in these coins waned when the hoped for premiums proved illusory, enough Mint State examples of the 1879 have survived that todays persistent buyer should have little difficulty acquiring one in the MS-60 to MS-66 grade range, although Gems such as this are scarce. A beautiful and desirable survivor from a mintage of just 4,800 circulation strikes.，PCGS# 6361. NGC ID: 24KS.，，From the Alexander Collection.
