1853 Liberty Seated Silver Dollar. OC-1. Rarity-2. MS-61 (NGC).Mottled golden-gray, cobalt blue and olive-russet patina provides a pleasing appearance for both sides. Sharply defined overall with an uncommonly smooth appearance in hand relative to the assigned grade. The increase in value for silver on the international market brought about by the California Gold Rush resulted in very little bullion being deposited for coinage at the Philadelphia Mint in 1850, 1851 and 1852. Silver disappeared from domestic circulation at the same time, as the coins were bought up by exchange and bullion brokers. The Act of February 21, 1853, sought to remedy this situation by making the smaller denominations from the half dime through half dollar subsidiary, which allowed these pieces to return to active circulation. The Act left the weight of the silver dollar unchanged, however, which mattered little since these coins were struck solely at the request of bullion depositors who used them in export trade. Beginning in 1853 requests for silver dollars increased again and, indeed, from that point through the end of the Liberty Seated series in 1873 most issues of this type were essentially predecessors to the purposely authorized trade dollar of 1873 to 1878. Most of the 46,110 circulation strike silver dollars produced in 1853 were shipped overseas, primarily to Liverpool, England or China. Many of the coins shipped to England eventually returned to the United States in payment for goods such as cotton, which accounts for most of the circulated survivors of issues such as the 1853. This is still a scarce issue in an absolute sense, especially in the finer circulated and all Mint State grades, as here.
