1869 Liberty Seated Silver Dollar. OC-5, Top 30 Variety. Rarity-3+. Misplaced Date. MS-61 (PCGS). Brilliant apart from delicate champagne rim highlights, this well struck and flashy piece is booming with frosty to semi-prooflike luster. The circulation strike 1869 silver dollar is curious as the mintage of 423,700 pieces represents a significant increase over the Mints yearly silver dollar output from 1861 through 1868. Opinions differ, however, as to the why of this sudden increase. Two opposing views are presented by Q. David Bowers in his 1993 <em>Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia</em>:<p><em>"[John M.] Willem states that the Mexican peso fell out of favor with Chinese merchants (due to a new tax in Mexico), and that the large business strike coinage of Liberty Seated dollars from 1869 onward was accomplished to provide coins for export to take advantage of the situation. However, opinions differ on this (see immediately below)...</em><p><em>"The following is by R.W. Julian: The heavy coinage of silver dollars in the late 1860s can be shown to be the result of another imbalance in trade for silver. Prior to about 1868 the U.S. usually exported more silver than it produced and imported and there was little need for a dollar coinage. After that time, however, there was no other place for the excess silver to go and it was therefore coined into dollars, even though they did not circulate."</em><p>Given that the 1869 is scarce to rare in all grades, we are inclined to agree with Willem. Other scholars agree, such as Hepburn in <em>History of Currency in the United States</em>, who states that the increase in coinage from 1868 to 1872 was "chiefly due to the rich discoveries of Nevada" and, more to the point, that "....practically all were exported." This solidly graded and attractive Mint State survivor represents a particularly important find for the astute silver dollar collector. PCGS# 6962. NGC ID: 24ZC.
